If & Only If
by Florencia7
Summary: Post-5x22. Damon and Bonnie are dead and everyone is struggling with the loss. But not everyone is ready to let go. Damon/Elena, Jeremy/Bonnie, Stefan/Caroline, Damon/Bonnie friendship, lots of other friendships and guest appearances from The Originals.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** It's this time of the year again, however, unlike last year, this summer we've got the saddest imaginable starting point for a post-finale DE fic :[ Oh well. Damon will be back, so let's not wallow in our grief too much :]

I was going to include a fun fact here and say that this fic will contain storylines that I hope won't happen in the show, but enlightening conversations with some wonderful people and writing this fic actually made me warm up to the storylines in question, so I'm all good now ;)

As usual, I'm planning on this story to have 22 chapters and I'll try to update at least once a week :)

**Summary: **Post-5x22. Damon and Bonnie are dead and everyone is struggling with the loss. But not everyone is ready to let go. Damon/Elena, Jeremy/Bonnie, Stefan/Caroline, Damon/Bonnie friendship, lots of other friendships and guest appearances from The Originals.

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW. The credit for the title goes to... philosophy & mathematics ;)

**If & Only If**

**Chapter 1**

"_I will make it back to you, I promise you."_

"Damon."

He couldn't decide if the note of annoyance in the person's voice was more disappointing or comforting. It was disappointing, because it meant the dream was over. But it was also comforting, because it was real. Something was real. Something was still really happening.

Damon's eyes blinked open. "Bonnie?"

"Oh, good. I thought you were- Well," Bonnie snorted hollowly and trailed off with a sigh.

Running his hand through his hair with a grimace, Damon sat up and slowly looked around. "Why are we still here?" He asked in bafflement, but with the level of energy that made Bonnie's eyes dart to him with an ambiguous mixture of irritation and relief.

"Where?" Bonnie deadpanned, drawing up her knees and resting her chin on them. They were dead and that was it and whatever delusional thoughts were brewing in Damon's mind right now, she wasn't going to join in.

Bonnie inhaled and exhaled slowly. Although she was willing to forgive his attitude, for perhaps the ability to have delusional thoughts brewing in one's mind at all wasn't the best proof of being dead.

"Did the Other Side disintegrate and we're... nowhere or is this still the Other Side?" Despite Bonnie's lack of enthusiasm, Damon continued undeterred, looking around, but not seeing anything at all except for infinite space, complete whiteness stretching in all directions. He tried to touch the ground they were apparently sitting on, but his hand went right through the white... surface? space? He made a face.

"You're just trying to make conversation, right?" Bonnie asked grumpily.

Damon's eyes darted to her and Bonnie was taken a little aback by just how comforting it was to look at something real and familiar, even if it was a sarcastic expression on the face of someone she barely tolerated.

"Well, this can't be heaven, because I'm here and this can't be hell, because you're here," Damon observed wryly.

"Wow. That's got to be the nicest thing you've ever said to me," Bonnie retorted flatly.

Damon's eyes widened in mock-astonishment. "I thought we were best friends now. What with the hand-holding and all."

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought we were about to dissipate into oblivion."

"But we didn't," Damon said with fake cheerfulness... or perhaps not so fake, Bonnie wasn't entirely sure. "Any idea why?" Damon murmured with a frown, looking around again, but not finding anything new to look at.

Bonnie lifted her head, shifting her gaze from her feet to Damon's face. "Actually... yes," she said quietly. Damon's eyes moved back to her. "Grams... I saw her and... she didn't say anything specific. I just... She just... She seemed so glad and I thought... I just thought she was trying to make me feel unafraid, but now I remember that there was that glint in her eyes, like... like when she'd get me a birthday gift she knew I'd be crazy about." For a moment Bonnie's face lit up, but a happy, reminiscing smile was soon gone and her expression became grim again.

"You must not have had very high birthday presents expectations, if this place is any indication," Damon said with a mirthless smile.

Bonnie shot him an annoyed look. "Would you rather be _dead_ dead right now, stripped of all conscious thought and memories?"

To Bonnie's surprise, instead of dishing out a snappy retort, Damon wrinkled his forehead and his lips twitched into a faint smile. "No, I wouldn't," he said barely above a whisper, looking away, and Bonnie gritted her teeth. She could still hear Jeremy calling her name at the top of his lungs in wild desperation, his voice echoing in her head so loudly she had to close her eyes to keep her tears at bay.

"Do you think we can make it back?" Bonnie blurted out, breaking through some tumultuous inner battle between hope and exhaustion, long weeks filled with pain that came with being the anchor making her shudder even as they were now a mere memory, most likely about to fade, like all others.

Slowly, Damon's eyes shifted back to her and for a moment she thought she saw in his eyes a glimpse of something that mirrored exactly that exhaustion she was feeling. She saw long, dark shadows of those 173 years – and a sense of peace evoked by the certainty that there could be no more pain, no more guilt, sadness, despair, disappointment.

With bitter relief, she felt the hope in her heart give in to growing exhaustion that was slowly swallowing up everything else, and she found solace in the realization that it wasn't just her longing for being at peace, that it wasn't just her-

But then Bonnie blinked and that glimpse was gone from Damon's gaze as if it had never been there, his lips stretching into a lop-sided smile, his eyes lighting up, heating up with that love that she, that no one had given a chance until it burst into something so real and so strong that it could burn all the obstacles like a wildfire.

Damon rose to his feet. "We can try," he said in a low, steady voice, looking around.

Bonnie winced, recoiling inwardly on her inability to make his attitude ignite her enthusiasm.

"I'm so tired," she breathed before she managed to stop herself, a pang of something akin to shame piercing through her heart. She didn't want to be dead. She wanted to get back to Jeremy with all her heart and yet there was something that was holding her back. "Maybe I haven't gone mad like Amara, but every time I looked at myself in the mirror these past few weeks, I saw someone who was fading away," Bonnie spoke in a hurried, blank voice, not looking at Damon who turned around and regarded her conscientiously, "and not only because of my pain," Bonnie continued quietly, "but because of all those people, all that pain and suffering they carried with them. I feel like I've become someone else. Like I aged a thousand years. Maybe Jeremy is going to be better off without me," she trailed off, choking on the words and catching her lower lip between her teeth, a few tears escaping from under her eyelids when she squeezed them shut, wrapping her arms around herself, a tremor running through her.

"Do you want to know what I see?"

Bonnie opened her eyes and looked at Damon who was squatting down in front of her, his tone matter-of-fact, but his eyes glimmering with the kind of cordial mischief she wasn't really used to.

"I see the girl who went from a reeling skeptic to a powerful witch in a flash. Who was always trying to do the right thing. Who went to take on Klaus all by herself. Who died to save her friends."

Bonnie was quiet for a few moments before she said in a perfectly no-nonsense tone. "You're just saying that, because you want me to help you to get back to Elena."

"I'm saying that, because it's true," Damon replied in all seriousness, then made a dramatic pause and added quickly. "And because I want you to help me to get back to Elena."

Bonnie chuckled, but then her expression suddenly changed and she jumped to her feet. "Grams!"

Damon sprung to his feet as well and turned around.

"I didn't think you'd bring company," Sheila said with a serene smile.

"Yes, well, this seemed like fun, so I decided to tag along," Damon said, narrowing his eyes in a brief smile.

"You can get us out of here," Bonnie whispered, her words coming out more like a statement than a question, her eyes widening with hope, even though a rational part of her was still considering the idea completely impossible.

Sheila took a few steps toward them and stopped in front of Bonnie, reaching out for her granddaughter's hand and squeezing it tightly. Glancing at Damon, with a good-humored reluctance she also took his hand in hers.

"You died a good death." Sheila said gently. "You died saving other people. That's why I managed to ensure that you can get another chance."

Bonnie's face brightened and she glanced at Damon, but a shadow of wariness on his face sent cold shivers up her spine. "Another chance?" Bonnie echoed uncertainly, looking back at her grandmother.

"That's all I can do, Bonnie," Sheila said with the faintest trace of regret in her voice. Bonnie stared at her with tears gathering in her eyes, a vague sense of dread flooding her senses. "When I let go of your hand, you'll wake up somewhere with no past, but with a chance to build a new future. You'll lose your memories, but you'll be _alive_. You'll get another chance to live."

"No!" Bonnie protested impulsively, accidentally almost tearing her hand out of Sheila's grasp, but her grandmother's grip was strong enough and she didn't let go. "I don't want that!" Bonnie shook her head in frenzy, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I don't want to forget Jeremy! I don't want to forget my friends! They are the reason why I even want to be alive! I don't want to forget everything that happened to me! Good or bad, all those things happened to me. It was my life, Grams! I don't want a different one." Bonnie's fingernails dug into her grandmother's hand in a desperate attempt to make her understand, and it seemed she did, but she was also looking at them with the look in her eyes that was so serene that it almost terrified Bonnie. "We don't want that!" Bonnie added quickly, resorting to group power of persuasion, her eyes darting to Damon. Regardless of their differences, she was certain that this was something they'd agree on. There was no way Damon would be OK with forgetting Elena.

"We could make our way back," Damon whispered and Bonnie frowned, shaking her head as if she was trying to shake off the illusion of hearing the words she was clearly not hearing.

"What?" Bonnie stared at Damon in apprehension, watching his profile, his eyes fixed on an indefinite point in space and she could see the distress and despair edged into his features, but he repeated his words and looked at her and she took a sharp intake of breath at the realization that she had heard him correctly. "How?" Bonnie asked in a faltering voice, staring at him with wide eyes. "How will we make it back? If we land somewhere, maybe very far away, with no memories, how do we ever make it back?"

"I don't know," Damon said soundlessly, finally turning his eyes to her. He grimaced and shook his head, steadying his voice and speaking with determination that felt to Bonnie both annoyingly intimidating and soothing. "But what I do know is that if we stay here and _really_ die, we'll never make it back."

"You can either take this chance or stay here and find peace," Bonnie's grandmother confirmed slowly.

Bonnie winced, shaking her head in helpless frustration.

"Here is the thing, child," Sheila said softly, squeezing Bonnie's hand in hers. "You'll find your happiness. I promised you that, remember?" She smiled and Bonnie tried to smile through her tears.

"Grams-"

"You'll find your way to the place, to the people that are your happiness, wherever that is, whoever they are," Sheila said in a solemn, urgent tone, her eyes boring into Bonnie's with all the love she had for her.

And then with one last smile she suddenly let go of both Bonnie's and Damon's hands.

xxxdelenaxxx

"_But I can't see you!" Elena complained, stifling a giggle._

_The setting summer sun was casting long rays of light through open windows, thin curtains billowing in the wind._

"_That's the point," Damon replied with a smile, tying up the blindfold on the back of Elena's head, his fingers tangling in her hair._

"_How could that ever be the point?" Elena muttered with sincerity that made Damon laugh._

_He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled into his embrace with a smile._

"_You mute one sense to enhance all others," Damon said, pressing a series of kisses to Elena's shoulder._

_She turned around in his arms, "I don't like not seeing you." Blindly reaching out, Elena traced the outline of his face with her fingertips._

"_I'm still here," Damon whispered, slowly inclining his head forward, smiling into the kiss when Elena's lips met his half-way._

"_I have a better idea," Elena said, abruptly drawing back and pulling the blindfold off her head, toying with it in her hand for a second, before quickly sliding it over Damon's eyes. "Let's play hide and seek."_

_Brushing her lips against his, Elena scooted off the bed with a laugh, running bare-footed toward the door, but before she stepped out of their bedroom and despite being blindfolded, Damon zoomed exactly in front of her, swept her into his arms and threw her back onto their bed._

"_Hey!" Elena protested, laughing under her breath, her hands pinned on either side of her head._

"_Found you!" Damon explained with a small shrug, the blindfold tickling Elena as he slowly dragged his lips across her collarbones._

_Elena chuckled. "You didn't even give me a chance to hide! I can hide really, really well," she said, reaching out, tugging the blindfold off Damon's head and tossing it onto the pile of books stashed on the nightstand._

"_So can I," Damon said widening his eyes at her with a lop-sided smile._

_He glanced away, about to move, but then Elena's hands flew to his shoulders, keeping him in place._

_His eyes wandered thoughtfully around her suddenly completely serious face and they exchanged faint smiles, before Damon leaned down, his mouth pressing against Elena's in a warm kiss._

"_Don't go," Elena whispered, her own words reverberating strangely in her head. "Don't go," she repeated, but they were still kissing, so she couldn't be saying the words out loud, yet it seemed to her that she was. "Don't go."_

"Elena."

The dream gently dispersed, images fading away even as she was clinging to them with exhausted, bereaved desperation.

"Elena."

With an inward sob Elena realized that she had only been dreaming. Again. She was dreaming of that summer which now seemed both centuries away and still here, her heart remembering every moment with vengeance.

She felt so protective of each memory, especially because lately almost everyone was trying to divert her attention from them and while she didn't doubt everyone's best intentions, they didn't seem to understand that she wasn't getting lost in her memories. She would've been lost without them.

"Elena!..."

Jeremy's voice was quiet, but insistent and at this point a little impatient, his hold on Elena's arm tightening as he was lightly shaking her in en effort to wake her up.

Elena's eyes blinked open and she abruptly pulled herself to a sitting position, bringing her hand to her forehead. "I don't know when I fell asleep," she mumbled with a frown, looking around the darkish room with unseeing eyes.

The room looked unfamiliar even after almost six months of living in this house that Alaric had rented for the three of them. The boarding house was situated within the magic-free zone, so living there was not an option, at least not until they'd figure out a solution to that. Sometimes Elena wondered if it was for the better or for worse and she couldn't decide on an answer.

"Shhh," Jeremy waved his hand in a silencing gesture, feeling a usual twinge of pain at the sight of Elena's eyes that now seemed permanently veiled with tears. "We're ten minutes behind the schedule. Get up," he whispered, resuming a resolute tone, reminding himself that any other tone was not going to help at all.

Elena nodded and quickly pushing the covers off her slid her feet into her shoes and stood up. She was already fully dressed. Absently, in an automatic gesture she brushed the tears off her cheeks with the backs of her hands.

"I'm ready," she whispered, pulling a small carry-on from under the bed.

Jeremy watched her, momentarily transfixed by something overwhelmingly forlorn and pitiful about Elena's demeanor and he wondered, for just a second, if that was how they both appeared to everyone lately.

But then the memory of Bonnie's eyes flitted through his head, her laughter reverberating in his ears and shaking himself out of the unhelpful reverie, Jeremy checked the straps of his backpack before tossing it onto his back and zipping up his jacket, his movements decisive and swift.

"Did you tell Stefan?" He asked in a whisper, soundlessly pushing the window open.

Elena wiggled her hands into the slightly too long for her sleeves of Damon's jacket and glanced out of the window before carefully dropping her suitcase on a bed of flowers below.

"I wanted to, but... he'd tell Caroline and Caroline would've us sent to Disney World in straight jackets for three months or something."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Jeremy said with a sigh. "So it's just us," he added with a small, encouraging smile, holding out his hand and helping Elena step on the window sill.

"Yes." Elena tried to smile, but failed, and Jeremy's expression froze for a moment when the moonlight flooding through the window illuminated Elena's face, showing just how enormous the dark circles under her eyes were. He made a mental note to ask her if she was drinking enough blood. Vampires didn't get sick and yet she was being listless and feverish and seemed very much regularly ill these past months. "Let's go," Elena whispered before jumping out of the window.

Jeremy followed right after her and they both noiselessly made their way through the garden and toward the car parked on the curb of the street. Very quietly, they opened the trunk, placed their luggage there and then got into the car.

"Passports?" Jeremy asked just to double-check before starting the engine.

Elena nodded. "We have everything," she said, fastening her seat belt with shaking hands.

Clenching his teeth, Jeremy drew a breath, shifting his eyes from Elena's hands to her face.

"Hey, I have a good feeling about this," he said on an impulse in the most convincing tone he could muster, leaning toward Elena and waiting for her to look at him.

She did and he gathered all of his strength to put a real smile on his face. Elena's eyes widened a little, the veil of tears still there, but now there was also genuine hope shimmering in them and Jeremy suddenly found himself submerged in that hope as well, fully believing the words he had just said.

"I know this is a stupid analogy to make," he continued after a pause, "but... do you remember what mom said when my hamster had run away?"

"That if he loves you as much as you love him, he'll come back," Elena said quietly, looking at her hands.

"And he did. And he never ran away again," Jeremy said, slowing down before taking a turn into the main street.

Elena looked up and after a moment of silence said in a low voice. "Because you got him three hamster wheels."

Jeremy's eyes darted to her and he felt even more hopeful about the whole venture thanks to Elena's feeble attempt at humor. "No," he said, shaking his head, "because I _explained_ to him that it makes me sad when he runs away."

Elena smiled brokenly and straightened up in her seat, glancing out of the window and then closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, because lately, every road looked the same to her.

"_You want what everybody wants."_

Lately, everything around her seemed to exist only as a trigger for memories.

"_What? Mysterious stranger who has all the answers?"_

Elena dug her fingernails into the fabric of her seat, but despite the pain tearing through her, she clung to the vision in her head... because lately, reliving memories was the only way to live.

"_I will make it back to you."_

Pressing her forehead against the cold window, Elena squeezed her eyes shut, feeling hot tears gather behind her closed eyelids.

"_I promise you."_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I'm completely overwhelmed with the response to the first chapter of this story! Thank you SO MUCH for all of your amazing reviews :]:]:]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 2**

"But we can track them! Like the last time-" Caroline trailed off when Alaric theatrically dropped Elena's and Jeremy's cell phones onto the note they had left for him.

Stefan glanced between the phones and Alaric's resigned face before shifting his gaze to the floor with a grim expression.

Caroline grimaced, shaking her head in frustration. "Did they at least explain what the hell they're up to this time?"

Wordlessly, Alaric placed his fingers on the sheet of paper in front of him and rotated it toward Caroline and Stefan. Caroline took a brisk step forward and looked at the note. _"Please understand."_ was all that the note was saying.

Caroline briefly closed her eyes and sighed. "So what are we going to do?" She asked, resorting to annoyance in order not to give in to worry. She looked between Alaric and Stefan who both seemed irritatingly unresponsive.

"Understand?" Alaric offered mockingly with a shrug, although his eyes were far from mocking.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest and gave Alaric an exasperated look. "So we're just going to sit here and hope they'll be fine?" She asked in agitation. "Last time they paid some charlatan twenty thousand dollars, so he could cut off pieces of their lungs with a magical knife and perform a magical ritual, even though the guy had spent eight years in jail and nine years in a mental institution, and I learned all that from the first results page after searching for the first three letters of his name."

"Nineteen thousand," Alaric said, squinting. "He offered them a discount."

Caroline grimaced. "They're going through the denial phase, I get it. But don't you think this is going too far? It's been six months. Maybe there is something really wrong with them. Maybe... They need help," Caroline said with a desperate expression.

"So what are you saying, that they're crazy?" Alaric asked in an openly dismissive tone.

"If they were crazy, they would've told us where they were going," Stefan suddenly spoke up, causing Caroline's head to turn rapidly into his direction. He gave her a weak, mirthless smile. "We can't take away the only thing that keeps them going, Caroline," he added in a hushed voice, his eyes brimming with sadness.

"Which is what?" Caroline asked with a frown.

"Hope," Alaric said hollowly, leaning back in his chair and meeting Caroline's gaze when she looked at him. "They're not ready to let go of that."

xxxdelenaxxx

The flight to Italy was long and exhaustive, but neither of them managed to fall asleep either on the plane or earlier during a prolonged layover after their first connecting flight.

They drove to the hotel in silence, both of them confined to their respective exhilarating memories braided with grief, a bizarre, paradoxical inner world providing solace and causing excruciating pain.

They had been in it before, together, when their parents had died. Maybe that's why, how they understood, without any need for words or explanations. Once again, they had silently, soundlessly descended into this comatose state between life and death that made it possible to live despite being dead and not die despite being unable to live.

The only difference was that now they had hope. Or something resembling hope, sometimes Jeremy couldn't define what it was, because he thought hope ought to feel light, bubbly and bright and this feeling that Elena and he still had was heavy, austere and dark.

It was past midnight, but despite not sleeping in over 48 hours, Jeremy was lying wide awake on his hotel bed listening to Elena, curled up in a ball on the adjacent bed, sobbing quietly into the pillow.

Eyes fixed on the ceiling, Jeremy threw his arm above his head and sighed. It was the most curious and heartbreaking thing that he realized only now: that Elena was crying in her sleep.

But he wasn't going to wake her up. Ric, Caroline or Stefan probably would, but that's because they didn't understand. Or they did understand, but didn't want, didn't think it right to act on this understanding. Mourning could be interrupted, but never stopped. Comforting words couldn't make grief go away. Telling someone to stop crying couldn't stop the tears. Lack of tears didn't mean someone wasn't crying.

Jeremy rolled onto his side and looked at Elena's back, her hunched shoulders shaking from the sobs. He didn't think vampires could lose weight, but she seemed smaller and more fragile than several months ago and it reminded him of when they had been going to preschool together, back when he had felt like a big brother, before Elena had realized that she was one year older and had unceremoniously and forevermore taken over the realm of being the older sibling.

"Why are you not sleeping?"

Jeremy blinked, refocusing his gaze in the darkness and noticing that Elena had turned around on her bed and was now lying on her side and looking at him.

Jeremy shrugged and sighed. "I can come up with better dreams when I'm awake."

Elena snuggled her cheek into the pillow. "Me too," she whispered shakily.

The hotel room was perfectly silent for a while, the silence interrupted only by occasional sounds of cars passing by below.

"When did you fall in love with Bonnie?" Elena asked suddenly in a hushed voice. "I mean," she sniffled, brushing the tears off her face with the back of her hand, "do you remember a moment, that moment when you thought... felt that something happened, and you weren't sure what, but something happened, and a part of you knew nothing would ever be the same after that."

For a few moments Jeremy's eyes wandered aimlessly around the dark room. "That day when Rose took you to Elijah. After Bonnie managed to teleport that note to you. She told me that magic was wearing her out, but she didn't want anyone to know. She said she felt all alone, that without her Grams and her parents she was all alone in this. And I told her, I said... that I was often feeling all alone too," Jeremy said with a mirthless snort. "It wasn't what I wanted to say. Or maybe it was. Either way, I just remember that feeling, so strong, that sudden, abstract feeling of certainty that she'd never feel that way again, even if she didn't know that yet. And it just made me so happy. That conviction that she'd never feel alone again and it was even kind of amusing that she didn't know that yet, but I did, and I wanted to tell her, but then this made no sense whatsoever, so I didn't. It still kind of doesn't make sense," Jeremy added as an afterthought, a weak smile flitting across his face.

"It does," Elena said softly.

"OK. Your story," Jeremy said, adjusting the pillow under his head. "Keep it PG."

Elena chuckled brokenly, her gaze drifting off into the distance. "The Miss Mystic Falls dance," she said quietly after a long pause. "I was walking down the stairs and there was no one there and then suddenly he was there and... I felt like I should be surprised... but I wasn't. I felt like I should be disappointed or upset... but I wasn't. And we danced and I thought... it's all wrong, but it feels so right and I can't hear the song, but I know it's the most beautiful song I've ever heard... and I thought, it's just a silly pageant dance, but I feel like it's the happiest moment of my life. And then he let go of my hand and I realized... that it was over, and it hurt in such a strange, strange way." Elena trailed off and for a moment the only sound in the room was her uneven breathing.

Then all of a sudden Elena burst into tears, her voice breaking as she was uttering the words at a hysterical speed, losing breath in between the syllables. "I wasted so much time. So much time! I was fighting it for so long. Why was I fighting it? And I said so many hurtful things. And all those stupid break-ups!..."

Jeremy jumped out of his bed and leaped toward Elena, pulling her into an embrace. "Come on, you know this kind of thinking doesn't lead anywhere."

Elena buried her face into Jeremy's shoulder, a muffled, heartwrenching howl escaping her and Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut, tears burning his eyelids. For a longer while he just held Elena, letting her cry, trying very hard not to cry himself, not to scream, because he feared that if he ever allowed himself to start screaming he'd never stop.

"Do you think it will work this time?" Elena finally asked, her voice hoarse from crying, her lips barely moving as she spoke.

Jeremy was staring pensively into the empty space of the dark hotel room with unseeing eyes. "It's a good lead," he said with conviction. "Bonnie's cousin gave us this address. This witch here knows all about the Other Side. About all different kinds of Other Sides, different dimensions, apparently, and she can talk to those who... who..." he swallowed, "who are there. So even if it won't work all the way, I'm sure we'll make some good progress."

Elena nodded and brushed the tears off her cheeks with the backs of her hands.

Over and over again.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Surprise!" A dark-haired girl appeared in the doorway with a bright smile on her face.

A dark-haired man on a hospital bed suppressed a laugh and shook his head with a lop-sided smile.

"Aren't you inseparable." A girl with short, strawberry blonde hair who was sitting in a chair next to the bed straightened up and shifted her gaze between the two dark-haired people.

"I woke up in a great mood today," Bonnie announced happily, jumping onto the bed next to Damon and taking a glass of water out of his hand. "Is that this new, enhanced water?" She asked, giving the other girl a questioning look. "Because it has a weird aftertaste," Bonnie said, taking a sip and grimacing for emphasis. "Yes, it does," she confirmed, giving the glass back to Damon.

Amanda slightly widened her eyes at Bonnie, a glimmer of surprise flashing in her eyes. "Really?"

"It doesn't taste any different to me," Damon said with a shrug.

"It does taste different," Bonnie insisted, playfully pushing Damon toward the edge of the bed to make room for herself and snuggle right next to him.

"It's amazing that you can tell the difference, Alice," Amanda said in a light, friendly tone that didn't quite match the wary intensity with which she was watching Bonnie. "No one else seems able to tell. Even my dad and he's very sensitive when it comes to all things edible and drinkable," she added with a laugh, trying to hold Damon's gaze when he looked at her.

Bonnie propped her head on Damon's shoulder and Damon stifled a smile at Bonnie's apparently successful attempts at being obnoxious enough to make their doctor's daughter leave the room, even though Amanda had been very nice and hospitable to both of them ever since the moment they had woken up from coma with no memories - after being found in the woods with no documents.

"I don't like the name Alice," Bonnie said with a dramatic huff that reminded her of something... someone... She wasn't sure, but she was sure it was something she was mimicking and not her own invention.

"Well, if you don't like it, you should pick a different one," Amanda offered with a thin smile. "It's been three months since you woke up and you're yet to tell us your name."

"That's because I don't remember my name," Bonnie retorted in a hollow voice, looking away.

Damon's smile turned into a frown and they both fell silent.

"I know, I'm sorry," Amanda said quickly, shaking her head in sincere embarrassment. "That's not what I meant. I didn't mean it that way. I meant-"

"We know, it's OK," Damon said with a reconciliatory smile, surreptitiously poking Bonnie, so she'd say something too, but she either was or pretended to be too lost in gloomy thoughts to speak.

"I'm sorry again. I'll... go talk to my dad and then check up on you later," Amanda said with a small smile, squeezing Damon's hand before standing up.

As soon as the door closed behind Amanda, Bonnie briskly sat up and turned around, so she was sitting on the bed facing Damon.

"So here it is," she started, resuming her cheerful tone without blinking. "We talked about this in my individual therapy session today. The newest theory: we've been raised as siblings and I'm having some overprotection issues and that's why the idea of you dating someone makes me extremely upset, even though I'm not jealous of you. What do you think?"

"Brilliant," Damon said in solemn voice, nodding decisively.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him and smacked him with the side of her hospital robe. They both laughed and then fell abruptly silent when someone knocked on the door. Bonnie widened her eyes at Damon when the person on the other side asked if he could come in.

Pressing her hand against her mouth in an exaggeratedly panicky gesture, Bonnie dived under the bed cover, trying to lie next to Damon as still as possible and stifling a giggle when Damon called for the visitor to come in while repeatedly hitting the bed cover with his open palm in an attempt to flatten it, which obviously wasn't possible.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to ask..." A young, light-haired patient with an immobilized hand peered inside. "Have you seen Alice today? I've been looking for her everywhere."

"Nope." Damon shook his head. "Haven't even sensed her spiritual presence nearby today."

The man smiled. "I see. Thanks." With another smile he closed the door behind him.

Bonnie waited a few more seconds for him to walk away and then pushed the cover off her, gasping for breath in an exaggerated manner.

"You might want to cut the number of suitors by half," Damon suggested matter-of-factly. "At least until the surgery. You need a healthy heart to handle all that."

Bonnie jumped off the bed with a smile and sat cross-legged on the chair next to the bed. "Not funny, actually," she said, dropping her smile. "He kept following me all day yesterday! He made me a sandwich and he signed up for my therapy group even though he doesn't need one!"

"He likes you."

"He is crazy!"

"Yeah, obviously."

Bonnie blinked and only after a second laughed, pulled a pillow from under Damon's back and hit him on the face with it. Damon snatched the pillow out of her hands and was about to return the favor, but the expression on Bonnie's face stopped him, her eyes glued to a solitary white feather that drifted from the pillow to the floor.

"Isn't it weird that we have the exact same heart disease, even though we're not related?" Bonnie spoke after a pause in a slightly detached voice, still oddly mesmerized by the feather, making an effort to tear her gaze away from it.

"In the context of being found together with no documents, waking up from coma at the same time and having the same type of amnesia, I'd say... moderately weird," Damon offered with a wink.

Bonnie smiled weakly. "Oh, I almost forgot," she exclaimed, rising to her feet and searching her robe pockets, producing a phone out of one of them and dangling it in front of Damon's face.

"It's a phone," Damon said, squinting. "That allows you to call people. If you know any people you can call."

Bonnie pursed her lips, shooting Damon an annoyed look before breaking into a smile again. "There is a guy on the 3rd floor who's doing that big hospital selfie project. And by the way, I _really_ like the internet. This may be a clue."

Damon tried to stifle a laugh, but failed.

Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "There's nothing to laugh about. Every time I'm at the computer I get that-"

"_Feeling_," Damon cut in, still snickering.

"Yes," Bonnie said with purposeful seriousness. "Who knows maybe my parents are world-famous hackers who work for the CIA," she added, thrusting up her chin.

"Or," Damon said with a smile, "you're just like 95% of people your age and you like the internet."

Bonnie intensified her glare. "Why do I consider you my best friend again?"

"Because you don't have any other friends?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes, biting back a chuckle. "How is your leg?" She asked, lightly patting Damon's bandaged knee.

"Dr. August said I can try walking tomorrow with no props of any kind," Damon said, widening his eyes at Bonnie.

"At last! That's great!" Bonnie said joyfully. "We can have a race to the cafeteria," she said directing her attention back to the phone in her hands. "Now. The selfie project. Everyone is supposed to take a selfie and then all the selfies will be put together and made into one, huge picture that will go _viral_," she concluded, beaming.

Damon groaned, sliding down on his bed and pressing the pillow onto his face. "That's _so_ lame," he said in a muffled voice.

"It's _so_ _not_ lame," Bonnie protested. "Besides. Someone may see it and recognize us," she said quietly, stealing a glance at Damon who didn't say anything and didn't move, but she was certain he was considering her words. Narrowing her eyes at him in a small, amused smile Bonnie said in a nonchalant voice. "Maybe your Dream Girl will see it."

Giggling, Bonnie dived to the floor to avoid being hit by the pillow. "Any progress?" She asked, picking the pillow up from the floor and refusing to give it back. "Did you finally get to see her face?"

"No," Damon grunted. "And I don't want to talk about that."

"Why?" Bonnie slumped onto the bed, giving Damon a serious look. "There's nothing wrong with having dreams about the same person every night. In fact, that's rather romantic."

"Yeah, especially if it's not a real person," Damon muttered with a frown.

"You don't know that," Bonnie said with a shrug. "She may be _totally_ real."

"Or she may be the personification of hope that someone out there has been searching for me for the last six months," Damon recited with a mocking grimace.

Bonnie waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "You should switch therapists. I told you that a month ago. OK. Whatever. Selfie time!" she said, positioning herself next to Damon and extending her hand with the phone in it.

"And how are you going to caption it?" Damon asked, tilting his head to the side and smiling artificially into the camera. "The Nameless Non-Twins?"

Bonnie squinted into the distance, thinking about the question for a moment. "Remember that movie we watched yesterday?" She asked suddenly getting the idea.

"What movie? No," Damon protested in a whiny voice, remembering.

Bonnie snapped the selfie and shrugged. "Tell me if you have a better idea. Personally, I think Bonnie and Clyde sound pretty cool."

xxxdelenaxxx

The small, murky apartment was curiously located underground, brick corridors left bare, illuminated by numerous candelabras sprawled against the walls and casting eerie shadows over the uneven floor. Even without looking at them, Elena had a strange impression that the shadows were watching them, the atmosphere of what seemed more like a crypt than an apartment taking its toll on her.

"We thought we could at least talk to them," Jeremy said in a desperate, pleading voice, his eyes boring into the witch's eyes as he was trying to make her understand, because, judging from a complacent expression on her face, he was afraid that she didn't.

Elena was sitting very still, looking at the witch with tears in her eyes. "Our friend's cousin told us you can contact anyonewho..." She drew a breath, trying to steady her voice. "No matter where they are, no matter if they found peace or... are somewhere else-"

"You misunderstood me," the witch spoke in a quiet, but firm voice, gracefully raising her hand and silencing them both. "I said that I can't find them, but not because I can't find them," she paused, while both Elena's and Jeremy's faces clouded with confusion. The witch smiled, shifting her gaze between them and something in the woman's eyes sent warm shivers up Elena's spine and made the distraught frown slowly vanish from her face even before the witch completed her explanation. "I can't find them, because they are not dead."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Thank you **so much** for all the wonderful reviews! :):):) & I don't know about this chapter, but I have a feeling everyone is going to like the next one lol Just to give you the heads up ;)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW. Song lyrics in this chapter from _Bed of Roses_ by Bon Jovi.

**Chapter 3**

"You're in _Italy_?" Alaric almost shouted into the phone. "As in, on another continent?"

Jeremy snorted in genuine amusement, unable to wipe the grin off his face. It was a wonder his face didn't hurt, because he was grinning non-stop since yesterday.

"Is that really the most interesting part of what I just said?" he asked into the receiver, shaking his head and laughing, glancing around the sunlit street and marveling at the sudden emergence of colors, sounds and scents. It was blinding and overwhelming, this ability to notice all of these again. He would have to re-learn how to live in such a vibrant world.

"No, that's the most... transparent part of what you just said," Alaric said cautiously on the other side of the line. "You know, the part I can actually comprehend."

"And that's coming from someone who was dead for a year," Jeremy said with another laugh. Paradoxically, the laughter was making Alaric worry even more, although it thankfully sounded rather normal and not hysterical. "Listen," Jeremy continued in a cheerful tone, "I don't have much time to talk. Elena went to grab some breakfast and we're meeting Verona, the witch who is helping us, in an hour. She'll try to do a special locator spell. She isn't sure it will work, because being on the Other Side even for a short time erases some aura layers. Anyway. I'll explain that in detail later. It may not work right away, but we have to start trying as soon as possible. For now you can just tell everyone what we know so far."

Alaric closed his eyes and stifled a sigh. "Jeremy. You don't know anything so far," he said carefully, holding his breath while waiting for Jeremy's response.

Jeremy groaned, not a trace of discouragement in his tone when he spoke. "Elena was right. We shouldn't have called you so soon."

"No, Jeremy, I'm glad you called, but..." Alaric shook his head with a grimace, searching for the right words. "Maybe you just shouldn't be getting your hopes up too high. That's all I'm saying."

There was a pause.

"I've got to go," Jeremy said in a lower, but firmer tone, with the faintest trace of irritation in it. "We'll call later with an update," he added and hung up before Alaric had a chance to say anything more.

xxxdelenaxxx

"See that guy over there?" Bonnie asked, bumping her shoulder against Damon's.

They were sitting on the steps near the hospital park entrance, watching other patients walking around, reading, breathing in the fresh air.

It was the first time the state of Damon's leg and his knee was good enough to allow him to sit next to Bonnie on the steps and not in a chair. It felt strangely refreshing to feel the stone texture under the palms of his hands when he touched it. However, the sensation still wasn't as striking as everything he was feeling in his dreams. Damon looked away with a pensive frown. For some reason he felt alive in dreams, but not so much in the reality. The reality felt so distant, made up, not real. He couldn't quite explain it, but there was something off, something missing about every moment he spent awake.

"The one with the drawing pad?" Damon questioned, squinting against the sun, absently playing with the ring on his finger that Bonnie had been making fun of for the first few days after they had woken up. He took it off, put it on, took it off again.

"Yes," Bonnie said, tilting her head to the side, watching the boy who was sitting across from them on a bench in the other side of the garden. "When I look at him-"

"You get a _feeling_," Damon finished the sentence for her, sending a faint smirk her way when she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Laugh all you want, Clyde," Bonnie said with all the confidence she could muster. "But it will all fall into place one day, you'll see."

"If you call me Clyde one more time-" Damon started in a low, ominous voice, but Bonnie cut him off, tossing a magazine onto his lap.

Damon rolled his eyes and hid his face in his hands.

"Oh, come on," Bonnie said with a frown, grabbing his hand and making it hover near the page the magazine was open at. "This is supposed to be fun."

"It's not fun. It's stupid. And guess what. It'd still be stupid even if we actually knew when our birthdays were," Damon said, uncovering his face and looking grimly at the page.

"Hey, no peeking!" Bonnie said, covering his eyes with her free hand. "And it's not stupid," she said the words before thinking them over and was a little surprised by the amount of resolve in her voice. Of course she didn't think it was stupid and that's why she had said that. But she was also under a strange impression that in addition to believing it wasn't stupid she also _knew_ that it wasn't.

With a resigned groan, Damon blindly pointed to one of the horoscopes. Straightening up, and giving Damon an authoritative smile, Bonnie snatched the magazine from him and kept it open in front of her face, pretending to be reading from it.

"I predict," she started in a solemn tone, but then stopped for a second and put the magazine down, "that this year is going to be kick ass," she said with a smile that Damon returned, shaking his head with a soundless snort. "And I predict," Bonnie continued, "all the sad and dark times are over and you are going to be beyond happy-" She trailed off rather abruptly, a deep frown appearing on her forehead, because the words started reverberating in her head, spoken in her own voice and yet it sounded a little different...

Damon was about to ask what was wrong, but then they were interrupted by someone appearing right in front of them.

"I've got my dad's permission to steal James for three hours," Amanda said with a smile, glancing at Bonnie and then shifting her eyes to Damon.

"His name's Clyde," Bonnie said with a completely straight face and Amanda blinked, but then chuckled when Damon placed the magazine over Bonnie's head.

"Witch," he said with a lop-sided smile, rising to his feet.

Bonnie laughed and watched him and Amanda walk across the park toward the parking lot. When they were out of sight, Bonnie placed the magazine back in her lap, closed her eyes, and picked a random horoscope with her finger.

"Let's see," she muttered and started reading:

"_This week is going to be full of opportunities for you! An exciting job could become available soon. More benefits come with more responsibilities, but don't be afraid to take the risk while taking necessary precautions. Also your social life will receive a boost. You may even meet the love of your life within the next few days! But be careful. Someone you haven't seen in a while might make an unexpected appearance and their ambiguous intentions can put your loved ones in harm's way. Remember to stay calm in crisis, trust your instincts and follow your heart. And don't be surprised if by the end of this week you'll receive the most extraordinary present from the least likely benefactor."_

Smiling to herself, Bonnie rolled her eyes and put the magazine away with a sigh.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Are you serious?" Caroline asked, giving Alaric an incredulous look.

Alaric sighed. "I'm not liking this any more than you do, but since it's nothing too complicated, I think we should just do what they're asking for, let them carry this through and... come back when the whole thing fails," he finished the sentence in a low, sad voice, the words leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, and he didn't know if it was because what he had said was true or because he believed that what he had said was true.

Caroline threw out her arms in exasperation. "Did they really need to go to Italy to do a locator spell? And what's the point anyway of doing a locator spell for someone who is dead?"

"That's the whole point, Caroline," Alaric said with a stiff smile. "This witch told them Damon and Bonnie aren't dead."

Caroline looked away with a worried frown before shifting her eyes to Stefan who was standing beside her in silence. "Well, what do _you_ think?" She asked in a gentler tone, trying to interpret the expression on Stefan's face.

Stefan stared at the floor for a longer while before looking up at Alaric. "How much did they say they need?" He asked a little breathlessly, as if he was making an effort to make his voice sound casual.

Caroline blinked.

"Just a small vial should be enough," Alaric said with a shrug. "A few drops of blood of a relative, that's what she told them."

"Do we know where Bonnie's mom is?" Stefan asked, wrinkling his forehead.

"I'm sure my mom can find her," Caroline said reassuringly, her eyes not leaving Stefan's face.

She began wondering if she had overlooked him secretly harboring that impossible belief along with Elena and Jeremy because he had been hiding it so well or perhaps it was something completely new, a newly rekindled hope that she found herself in no position to question.

Or reject, she thought with an inner jolt caused by the memory of Bonnie's contagious smile.

"Alright," Caroline said, placing her hands on her hips and thrusting up her chin. "Let's join the crazy squad."

xxxdelenaxxx

"_I'm so far away_

_That each step that I take is on my way home."_

Amanda lightly tapped Damon's hand and smiled thinly when he almost jumped in his seat, as if someone had just woken him up from sleep.

"I'll take a leap of faith and assume that you zoning out has nothing to do with the quality of my company," she said, taking a sip of her drink. The dim lights above their table were making the ice cubes on top of the glass glimmer.

Damon smiled faintly and shook his head. "I was just... listening to the song."

"Really?" The girl said, straightening up and listening for a second to the song that was playing in the background. "So you like Bon Jovi."

Damon shook his head with a grimace. "No."

"_I want to lay you down on a bed of roses_

_For tonight I sleep on a bed on nails."_

"No?"

Damon looked around the restaurant thoughtfully for a second. "I don't think I do. It just..." He trailed off with a sour half-smile when he realized that he was about to deliver one of Bonnie's 'I just get this feeling' lines.

Amanda watched him for a while, but the prolonged silence was becoming uncomfortable. Damon, lost in thought, seemed once again completely oblivious to his surroundings.

"I see this wasn't the best idea," Amanda said, glancing around the cozy restaurant.

Damon blinked, the words shaking him out of his reverie once again. "I'm sorry."

"_And she's giving me the eye_

_I might have said yeah_

_But I laughed so hard I think I died."_

"Don't be," Amanda said, leaning against the cushioned back of the booth. "It's my fault. I keep forgetting how hard and weird it must all be for you. I can't even imagine. So I'm sorry if I'm being too... invasive."

"It's not you."

She rolled her eyes. "Right. It's you."

"I just... It's just... that no matter what I do I can't shake this feeling..." He frowned, trying to choose the right words to explain exactly what he was feeling, but then deciding that the truth wasn't necessarily the most tactful thing to say. Or most sensible. And he really didn't need another set of therapy sessions to know that being in love with a figment of one's imagination wasn't probably the healthiest thing to do.

"_When you close your eyes_

_Know I'll be thinking about you."_

After waiting for a few moments for Damon to finish his sentence, Amanda gave up and rose to her feet. "Let's go back to the hospital. It's late anyway and I promised my dad that I'd prepare and send out today all the invitations for the conference. It's such a hassle," she said with a small sigh. "Ever since they moved the Society meetings from Whitmore to here all the paperwork is killing me," she said with a smile. "Let's go."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena tilted her head to the side and looked at the tree that curiously seemed to grow in the middle of the pavement. Its tiny green leaves shivered in the wind and she smiled faintly at the quiet sound they made that her vampire hearing allowed her to catch. She hadn't really been using it much in the last months, she realized. She hadn't really been using any of her senses much. Everything had been dimmed and muffled. Colorless. Everything but her dreams and her memories. Mostly memories, because that's what had allowed her to take each day at a time and believe that tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow there would be a breakthrough. But now also the dreams returned and she couldn't stop imagining the future, imagining finding Damon and Bonnie and bringing them home... which could be anywhere, really, any place could become home once they were all together.

"Ric said the vials with Stefan's and Bonnie's mom's blood should be here tomorrow," Elena said, reaching for a spoon and stirring her coffee at a pace that indicated more anxiety brewing in her mind than her voice was betraying.

Jeremy looked around, watching people hurrying or moving very slowly across the square in which the small café they were sitting in was located. "Just one more night, I know," he said with a nod, checking the status of the package for the thirtieth time, even though it probably couldn't have changed in the last several minutes.

"You should turn this off until tomorrow," Elena suggested, glancing meaningfully at Jeremy's laptop.

"I'm reading the entertainment news," Jeremy said, changing the website and giving Elena a weak smile over the screen.

She shook her head, rising the coffee cup to her lips.

Absently cutting the tiramisu with a small fork, Jeremy flipped through different sites, his mind wandering off, his eyes skimming over the images flickering on the screen without giving any of them much thought.

Elena propped her head on her elbow, following with her fingertips the floral patterns on the white tablecloth. "How is the tiramisu?" She asked listlessly, not looking at Jeremy.

A gust of wind lightly tugged on her hair, making the coffee cups rattle quietly against their small plates, steady noise of surrounding conversations filling the silence at their table.

Her attention primarily focused on memories flitting through her head, it took Elena an additional minute to notice that Jeremy hadn't answered her question. She looked up at him.

Jeremy's face was drained of all color, his eyes wide and shining, glued to the computer screen.

"Jeremy?" Elena asked with an anxious frown, quickly leaning toward him, but when Jeremy's eyes darted to her there was such incredible light in them that anxiety vanished almost immediately, replaced by a vaguely exciting sense of bewilderment.

Elena blinked and even though Jeremy didn't say anything at all, she felt tears gather in her eyes when a small smile that appeared on Jeremy's face began turning into a grin. With shaking hands, Jeremy picked his computer off the table and gave it to Elena who nearly dropped it at the sight.

_Hospital Selfie_

_The Greatest Digital Project in the Land of Enchantment_

_New Mexico_

_portrait no. 133_

_Bonnie and Clyde_


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Thank you **SO MUCH** for your beautiful reviews! :):):)

Please note that from now on there are going to be some spoilers for _The Originals_ all the way through 1x22 ;)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 4**

All kinds of disastrous scenarios rushed through Caroline's head on her way to the door, loud knocking and incoherent shouting scaring her even more when she recognized Stefan's voice.

"What happened?!" she asked with a terrified gasp, opening the door and expecting some fatal announcement, but the expression on Stefan's face threw her for a loop completely.

"Caroline!" Stefan exclaimed in a voice that Caroline would take as a sign that he was drunk if she didn't know better."I got you an inflatable neck pillow!" he declared a little breathlessly with the most ridiculous grin on his face, lifting the pillow for Caroline to see. "I ran all the way here. Five times. And then five times around your building," he added with a chuckle, trying to catch his breath.

Caroline stared at him in silence for a moment, before her eyes widened upon the obvious conclusion. "Oh my God," she whispered in dismay.

"It's pink!" Stefan continued, beaming and pushed the pillow into Caroline's arms with a laugh. "They also had green ones and blue ones, but blue ones didn't have speakers and green ones didn't vibrate and this one has stereo speakers and it vibrates."

"It's a great pillow," Caroline said slowly, regaining her composure, pulling Stefan inside and closing the door behind him. "Everything is going to be OK," she said in the calmest voice she could muster, grasping Stefan's shoulders. "We should call Dr. Fell," she muttered, more to herself than to Stefan. "Everything is going to be fine," she repeated, giving Stefan a strained, reassuring smile and was both relieved and even more perplexed when she noticed that instead of a vacant look, Stefan's eyes glimmered not only with inexplicable joy, but also with complete lucidity.

"Caroline, they found them," Stefan said after a pause in a lower tone and Caroline stiffened.

"What?" She whispered, blinking.

"They found them. Or brought them back. I don't know. I didn't listen. I mean I did, but..." Stefan laughed again, shaking his head. "They are in New Mexico. I booked the flight for us and Alaric. We'll meet him at the airport. We need to pack. You need to pack. I'll go pack and then we'll drive-"

"Stefan, what are you talking about?" Caroline cut in, her lips barely moving, her face brightening despite her efforts to remain collected and reasonable until she would get all the facts straight.

Stefan drew a breath and smiled, looking Caroline deeply in the eyes to ensure that she knew he was being utterly serious. "Elena and Jeremy found Damon and Bonnie."

For a few long moments Caroline's eyes were wandering frantically all around Stefan's face before she finally let herself believe that what she was hearing was true.

"What are they doing in New Mexico?" she asked with a nervous laugh, trying to focus on technical details to keep herself from giving in to shock and panic.

Stefan grimaced a little, although his expression was still bright. "Yeah, that's where it gets a little complicated. Apparently, they're both human and they don't remember who they are."

xxxdelenaxxx

Leaning her head against the cab window, Elena wrapped her arms around herself to keep them from shaking. Then she remembered about her new red dress she had bought at the airport in Italy and placed her hands on her sides to keep the dress from wrinkling. The weather was a little too warm for a leather jacket, so she shrugged it off her shoulders, put it in her lap and drew a deep breath.

She was doing her best trying to sit still, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. The closer to their destination they were getting, the more she wanted to just jump out of the car and run to that hospital.

She had been rehearsing the upcoming conversation in her head over and over again during the plane ride, but right now she couldn't recall any well-prepared sentences. All those mental rehearsals weren't probably very useful anyway, because they had always proceeded rather easily and involved either Damon regaining his memories on the spot or at the very least them kissing madly. And then him regaining his memories on the spot.

Either way, Elena had a hard time working out the details, because all she could think about was that Damon and Bonnie were alive. She couldn't even bring herself to analyzing how it had happened, despite Jeremy's efforts to strike a reasonable conversation concerning that. She also wasn't really thinking about Damon being human and what it meant. All her thoughts were revolving around seeing Damon and Bonnie again and it was the only moment she could picture quite clearly in her head. She was just going to think about everything else later.

"Elena, we have to stay calm. And behave calm," Jeremy said, as much to Elena as to himself since his heart was hammering in his chest so hard he half-expected it to jump out of his chest any second. "We can't have anyone suspect that something weird has happened."

"I know that, I'm calm," Elena said resolutely, giving Jeremy an amused look when they got out of the cab in front of the hospital.

"Right," Jeremy muttered, but decided not to argue, as he doubted Elena remembered anything from their flight from Italy anyway.

She had seemed completely lost in thought, not hearing Jeremy's questions, but asking him when they were going to land every five minutes or so, even though for the duration of their entire transatlantic flight she had been staring at the screen in front of her that was showing precisely what time it was and when exactly they were going to land. Jeremy's personal favorite moment of the trip was when a flight attendant had asked Elena if she would've liked something to drink and she had offhandedly replied: "No, thank you, I just had a blood bag."

"You know what that doctor has said," Jeremy continued, trying to draw Elena's attention to what he believed was an important thing to keep in mind. "They lost their memories. They don't know who they are and they probably won't have any idea who we are when they see us," he said carefully, watching Elena's face and hoping that his words were at least registering in her mind, even if she wasn't listening to him very intently.

"I know that, Jeremy," Elena said with a trace of seriousness in her voice that appeased Jeremy's fears a little. She stopped walking and turned toward him. "But it doesn't matter. Sooner or later they'll remember or even if they won't, we'll just rebuild everything from scratch. What matters is that they're alive," she said with a radiant smile, her breath catching in her throat, the last word bringing tears to her eyes.

Jeremy smiled as well, trying to share Elena's attitude and focus on the bright – there was hardly any other – side of the situation, but he couldn't help worrying about how it would all go. For one, surely one's past had some impact on falling or not falling for this particular person and not another, and if so, what if this past-free Bonnie wouldn't feel about him the same way? What if whatever had made her love him was gone along with her memories of him - and of herself, of who she was before?

But since Elena didn't seem to share his reservations in the slightest, Jeremy made an effort to push all the grim thoughts away. At least for the time being. Elena was probably right anyway. All that mattered was that Bonnie and Damon were alive and that they were going to see them in a couple of minutes. Any problems that might arise from now on could be resolved in time.

Barely controlling the trembling of their voices, they briefly explained the reason for their arrival when they entered the hospital and were told to wait for the doctor with whom they had spoken on the phone.

The doctor's office was austerely appointed except for the excessive number of pictures on the walls. Elena didn't even spare them a glance and was looking out of the window instead, but Jeremy's attention was immediately drawn to one of the pictures that he felt he had seen before. He blinked in surprise at the sight, his eyes widening a little at the strange coincidence and he was about to point the picture out to Elena, but then the door opened and the doctor walked inside, greeting them with a friendly smile.

"Gilbert?" Dr. August asked when introductions were made, glancing fleetingly at the same picture that Jeremy had just noticed. "The name Grayson doesn't by any chance ring a bell with you, does it?" He asked conversationally, looking back at the documents on his desk.

Elena and Jeremy exchanged a look, not as gladly reminiscent as it could've been a few months ago.

"Actually... that's our dad," Jeremy said cautiously.

The doctor looked up at them in surprise. "This is truly a small world, isn't it?" he laughed. "What a coincidence. Feel invited to a family dinner next week. My wife and daughter will be delighted to meet you. So how is Grayson? And Miranda?" The doctor asked and then frowned at the expressions that appeared on Elena's and Jeremy's faces.

"They died in a car accident three years ago," Elena said in a low voice.

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea," Dr. August shook his head with an apologetic grimace and leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "We didn't keep in touch much in the last, well, twenty years or so. Ever since Grayson had moved to Virginia..." The doctor trailed off, as if searching for the right words. "We were working on a project together and it grew big, bigger than we had expected. He moved to Virginia to carry on with the research there. It was where the headquarters, so to speak, were."

"At Whitmore College," Jeremy observed evenly and Elena stiffened, not sure if bringing up such a perilous subject was a good idea. So much for being inconspicuous.

"Yes." Dr. August nodded, somewhat surprised. "I see you know a little about that," he said in a tone that seemed both more relaxed and suddenly wary.

"Probably even more than a little," Jeremy said with a shrug and Elena wanted to poke him, but didn't, since it was impossible to do without the doctor noticing. She just hoped that Jeremy himself would realize that right now was not the best time to play detective.

Dr. August squinted briefly, looking between them with a pensive frown on his face. "I see. Well," he cleared his throat. "I heard that about five years ago he quit, withdrew himself from the research work, and I didn't really hear anything about him since then. I often wondered... why did he quit? Do you know?"

Elena and Jeremy stared at the doctor in surprise, both struck with some abstract, bittersweet relief. But they quickly shook themselves out of it.

"He just wanted to have more time for us," Jeremy blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

Dr. August nodded in understanding.

"Could we go see Damon and Bonnie now?" Elena asked a little hastily, impatient to see them, but also wishing to interrupt the conversation before it'd take a hazardous turn.

"Oh, of course," Dr. August rose to his feet. "I didn't tell them you'd come, because, well, you know, sometimes people call and inquire, but never show up. First I wanted to make sure you really exist." He chuckled briefly under his breath. "They're going to be so happy to see you. Just keep in mind their heart conditions. Don't drop all the shocking social news on them at once," the doctor said with a wink, ushering Elena and Jeremy out of his office and into the hallway.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Did you forget to tell me about something?" Tyler asked, fighting an amused smile and slumping onto a couch across from Matt, the living room bright with sunlight.

"Not funny, Ty," Matt grunted in a surprisingly solemn voice, his eyes fixed on a letter in his hands.

"Well, kind of funny if this is what I think it is," Tyler said with a chuckle, glancing at the stroller. "Is she coming back or is it a permanent keepsake?" Matt looked up with a frown. Tyler extended his arms and shrugged. "Just trying to figure if you're going to be a single father or perhaps there's hope for a happy, nuclear family."

Matt just stared at him for a second before rolling his eyes with an impatient huff. "Cut it out. This is not my kid."

Tyler laughed. "Right. How do you know?"

"I know it may come as a shock to you," Matt said, folding the letter and putting it away, "but there actually are some people on this planet who can know such things for certain." He sighed. "I just need to take care of her for three days," he added after a pause, glancing at the baby who was sleeping peacefully in the stroller.

"Three days?" Tyler widened his eyes at Matt and then sat back on the couch. "Easy."

Matt shot him a grim look and for a while Tyler was just snickering at him in response, but then a thought struck him and he jumped to his feet.

"No," he said, glancing at the baby and then giving Matt a demandingly questioning look. "Tell me that's not it. Tell me this is not _that_ kid."

"What kid? What are you talking about?" Matt asked in slight confusion – and surprise, wondering how Tyler could possibly know about that. And if he did, why he hadn't ever said a word.

Tyler narrowed his eyes at him. "Bonnie just died, Jeremy and Elena are on the verge of insanity, our town is under some dumb-ass spell. I really don't think we have room for more problems!" He exclaimed angrily. "It's all their fault!" he continued, pointing to the baby and shouting despite Matt making hushing gestures at him. "It all started with them! He killed Jules, he killed Elena's aunt, he killed my entire pack! He killedmy mother, Matt! But I guess that's all still not quite enough to stop my girlfriend from sleeping with him and my best friend from babysitting his child!"

"Hey, calm down, man," Matt grabbed Tyler by his shoulders and sat him back down on the couch. "It's not about Klaus. Rebekah showed up in the middle of the night. She was terrified, could barely breathe, because of the spell. She asked for help, left the letter and vanished into the night within three seconds. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't say no."

Tyler snarled, tossing his head backwards. "Like Rebekah is any better! What's wrong with you, people?!" Tyler glared at Matt, shaking his head in bewilderment.

"Listen-" Matt started, but Tyler just shoved him aside, stood up and headed for the door, loudly shutting it closed behind him.

xxxdelenaxxx

Following one of the hospital's long, bright hallways, Elena and Jeremy headed toward the park entrance making an effort not to run.

"Elena, I know your mind is now elsewhere, but..." Jeremy fell silent and waited until a group of people went past them before continuing. "We should be careful and just grab Bonnie and Damon and get out of here as fast as we can," he said in a low, urgent voice, shooting Elena meaningful looks to which she didn't seem to be paying much attention.

"They're human, Jeremy," Elena said, glancing around with glimmering eyes and an anxious, dreamy expression on her face. "No one can be suspecting them of anything. They've been here for six months. This doctor didn't act as if he was suspecting them or us of anything."

Jeremy shook his head with a frown. "He might've noticed your ring."

Elena shrugged without looking at him. She bit her lip, impatiently scanning their surroundings just in case Damon and Bonnie would appear.

Jeremy widened his eyes at her. "I think it's pretty clear what kind of research he was talking about. If he's been torturing vampires for a quarter-century it's rather likely he can recognize a daylight ring. Don't you think? What if this hospital is another Augustine torture chamber? Not that it can't be a complete coincidence that his last name's August," Jeremy whispered with a mirthless snort. "We can't risk staying here. You can just give Bonnie and Damon vampire blood to heal them. They won't need any surgeries now or ever. There's no reason for us to be staying here for even a day longer."

"If they're human and they have no memories, don't you think that would freak them out? Leaving in such a hurry?" Elena observed quietly, biting her lower lip and shuddering at the sight of the silhouette of every person that looked at least a tiny bit similar to Damon or Bonnie.

"Really?" Jeremy grimaced. "That's what we're going to worry about right now? You can compel them not to freak out. We'll sort it all out once we're back home."

"Don't you think that this is exactly what will raise everyone's suspicions here, if we decide to leave immediately, regardless of scheduled surgeries?"

"Who cares? Besides, we don't have to leave in broad daylight. Alright." Jeremy stopped walking and looked right and left with a sigh. "The park is over there and the therapy session room is down this hallway, Bonnie should be out of there in a couple of minutes. I'll wait for her by the door."

Jeremy looked at Elena and for a moment they stared at each other, terrified, before radiant smiles simultaneously appeared on their faces and they laughed briefly, squeezing each other's hands before heading into different directions.

Elena tucked loose strands of hair behind her ears and pushed the door that led to the park open.

It was a sunny day and she could feel the breeze skim over her skin and hair when she stepped outside and walked down several stone steps, looking around. Almost immediately, she noticed the silhouette of a man who was standing with his back to her, but then slightly turned around, squinting against the sunlight that was illuminating his face.

Elena's breath caught in her throat, all the happiness and all the grief rushing back to her and with tears blurring her vision, forgetting all about any precautions, she dashed forward and stopped only right in front of Damon just when he turned around.

"_I'm sorry, the door was... open."_

She had been thinking about this moment for the last two days, expecting exactly this: looking into his eyes again and yet this moment now was completely unexpected – because it was real. And so simple. She couldn't remember where the words "messy" or "complicated" had ever come from. They seemed so absurd, so entirely meaningless now. They had vanished that night when she had lost him. Everything had disappeared that night. Good and bad. Everything, except her love for him – and his for her, because she could feel both, she was feeling both for the last six months and maybe that was what had been causing that excruciating pain. So much love couldn't be contained in one person. It had to be shared.

Damon tilted his head to the side, looking at the girl in front of him with a small, lop-sided smile on his face.

"Hey you," he said gently, because the girl was looking at him with some curious kind of amazement that he found disarmingly endearing. He also made a point of not taking a step back even though they were standing so close it was almost impossible for them to keep their balance.

But the girl wasn't stepping back either and he suddenly found himself grasping her arms to steady her. She shuddered and he stopped smiling struck by a feeling, a thought he couldn't quite place.

Damon's eyes wandered over Elena's face in confusion as he began noticing everything at once: the expression on her face, the tears in her eyes, her lips trembling as she continued staring at him with such intensity and amazement that he quickly guessed that it must've been caused by some kind of recognition and he held his breath.

"Hey you," Elena breathed out with a broken smile, her hands flying to Damon's face, cupping his cheeks and looking at him with such warmth in her eyes that he felt as if every inch of his skin was suddenly set on fire.

Elena grimaced and with a stifled sob, she impetuously wrapped her arms around Damon's neck and hugged him. To her surprise and exhilaration, his arms instinctively closed around her and she laughed soundlessly through her tears.

Damon ran his hand up and down Elena's back in a soothing gesture, intrigued and astonished by just how natural, how endlessly familiar it felt to hold her in his arms, how much he _needed_ to hold her. Slightly tilting his head to the side he buried his face in her hair and slowly breathed in her scent, his eyes widening at the startling realization that her scent didn't make him think of any flowers or spices - but rather of dreams and memories. He closed his eyes with a tentative, feverish smile. And of home. She made him think of home.

Reluctantly, Elena drew back to look at him. "I'm sorry, I just..." she began, drawing a hasty breath, holding his face in the palms of her hands and acknowledging with relief that he was making no attempt to stop her or put any distance between them. Instead, he was gazing at her with ardent curiosity. "I thought you were dead," she whispered, stroking Damon's cheeks with her fingertips and smiling through her tears.

She was about to continue, but then held her breath, startled by Damon's hands landing on her cheeks in a gesture mirroring her own.

"I thought you weren't real," he murmured with a trace of utter reverence in his tone, looking at her with wonder in his eyes, brushing the tears off her face with his thumbs.

Elena grinned feverishly, unable to stop crying and then, all of a sudden, to her astonishment, Damon's lips captured hers and gingerly, he kissed her.

He was somewhat aware of the fact that it was perhaps preposterous to do that, but he wasn't able to stop himself. He just _needed_ to press his mouth against hers. The kiss was meant to be brief, but the moment his lips touched hers everything inside him and the entire world around him seemed to shatter and collapse and burn in flames – and then reappear, white-hot, red-hot, incandescent and he cradled her to him and kissed her _more_ and again, relentlessly.

"I'm sorry," Damon said breathlessly when they at last pulled away. "I just... had to kiss you," he whispered and Elena smiled against his lips. "What's your name?" He asked under his breath, sliding his hand into Elena's hair, the sunlight sifting through it in the exact same way it always had in those recurring dreams of his.

Elena leaned her forehead against his and closed her eyes. "I'm Elena," she said quietly, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. "Your name's Damon." Elena's eyes blinked opened and the tears rolled down her face when she smiled, overjoyed to finally be able to say to him the words that had been reverberating in her head for the last several months. "And you are my life."

xxxdelenaxxx

"How did I pack faster than you?" Caroline asked in pretended astonishment, propping her hands on her hips as she watched Stefan finally close his suitcase and send it rolling toward the door.

"I'm guessing you just didn't pack anything at all, so you'd have an excuse to go on a shopping spree as soon as we land in New Mexico," Stefan offered matter-of-factly.

Caroline punched him playfully in the chest. "Do you really think I can think about shopping right now?!" She said, laughing under her breath and following Stefan to the door. "All I can think about is that I'm the worst friend ever," she added with a genuinely troubled frown.

"Don't worry," Stefan said with a sigh, shooting her a comforting smile. "I'm the worst brother ever."

Caroline smiled, but then narrowed her eyes at him in mock consideration. "Actually, you're both. You're the worst brother and the worst friend and I'm the worst friend and the worst frenemy... which makes you worse than me overall!" she concluded happily.

Stefan smiled back at her and opened the door, but then his hand stopped in mid-air before he had a chance to reach for his suitcase.

"Going somewhere?" The man who was standing in the doorway asked in a mildly sardonic, even tone, looking between Stefan and Caroline with an ominous glint in his eyes.

"Seriously?!" Caroline exclaimed and Stefan was momentarily shaken out of unpleasant bewilderment and genuinely amused by pure annoyance and no fear whatsoever resonating in Caroline's voice.

But then Mikael's expression darkened and he stepped inside, slamming the door shut behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Thank you **so much** for all the awesome reviews! *hugs*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 5**

"How is your heart?" Elena asked between the kisses, her voice laced with worry as she suddenly remembered the doctor's warning. "Does it hurt?" She asked, carefully splaying her hand over Damon's chest.

It had only been several minutes, but to Elena's amazement it felt as if the last six months had already thawed in the heat of their reunion, the haze of grief and despair dispersing more and more with every second.

Smirking, Damon grazed her cheek with the back of his hand. "Not anymore," he quipped with a glimpse of mischief in his eyes, leaning in for another kiss.

Elena smiled against his mouth, wishing she could just give him the vampire blood and heal him immediately, but there were too many people around, not to mention the virtual impossibility of explaining to him why drinking her blood would cure his heart disease.

Of course she could compel him and Jeremy was probably right that it would be the easiest and perhaps even the most sensible way of avoiding elaborate and warped explanations until they were safely back home, however, she hoped they could achieve just that without manipulating Damon's and Bonnie's minds.

"Maybe we should sit down?" Elena asked, reluctantly breaking another kiss. She was still worried that she might be unintentionally hurting him and that concern was overriding the fact that it was not only intoxicating, but also fortunate that at the moment Damon seemed more interested in kissing her than asking her a series of unanswerable questions.

Because with an unpleasant twinge of bitter trepidation Elena suddenly realized that she couldn't provide him with any fully truthful answers. Not until she would tell him about all the supernatural circumstances of their lives and that wasn't something that she could divulge in the middle of a hospital garden.

"I'm not that sick," Damon said reassuringly, cradling Elena's face in his hands and brushing his lips against hers. "Unless... you're just trying to politely get me to stop kissing you," He offered as an afterthought, an amused smile flickering across his lips.

Elena grimaced, stifling a laugh and crashed her mouth into his, kissing him thoroughly before drawing back. "I just don't want to abuse you before you recuperate," she whispered, simpering. "Before we go home," she added, wrapping her arms around Damon's neck and leaning her forehead against his. "Do you think we could leave today? I know you and Bonnie have your surgeries scheduled for this week, but I'm sure we could arrange for them quickly enough back home."

Damon shrugged. "We can leave right this minute as far as I'm concerned," he said, sliding his hands into Elena's hair and looking at her with a warm smile that she returned. "Where would you like to go on our second first date?" he asked, his eyes gleaming happily. "Where did we go the first time?"

Elena bit her lip, thinking about the question. "It's a bit difficult to say, because I think we went on quite a number of dates without knowing they were dates."

"You mean we're a best-friends-turned-lovers case?" Damon asked, raising his eyebrows in mock-astonishment. "Really? I managed to pull off pretending I just wanted to be your friend and you actually bought it?"

Elena chuckled, snuggling into his embrace and leaning her cheek against his shoulder. "Well, I was having my moments of unwarranted confusion every time I'd find you in my room in the middle of the night or you'd grab me and kiss me or tell me that you loved me, but other than that, you were being a very good friend," she said, outstretching her fingers and gently placing her open palm over his heart again.

"So when did you decide we could be more than friends? What changed your mind, Elena?" Damon asked, smiling at how saying her name out loud was sending warm shivers up his spine every time.

Elena took a sharp intake of breath at the memory evoked by his question. Then her forehead wrinkled in thought and she was quiet for a few moments. She felt Damon lean his cheek against the top of her head, his fingers threading slowly through her hair.

"Once I was sick," Elena said pensively after a pause. "I was... hallucinating and I almost killed myself, but you jumped with me into the river and saved me. I woke up a few hours later in my bed, in my room and you were there with me and I just felt... I felt like I woke up from a bad dream. A very long bad dream about a very sad girl who was afraid not to be sad." Elena lifted her head to look at him. Damon was looking down at her very attentively, visibly caught off guard and very moved by her words. "I touched your hand and you grasped it so hard and I realized that I didn't want to be sad anymore. And that I didn't have to feel guilty about not being sad." Elena smiled and placed her head back on Damon's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," Damon muttered into her hair, tightening his embrace. "About everything you've gone through," he said in a low voice, his eyebrows furrowed.

Slowly, Elena opened her eyes struck by the realization that had somehow escaped her before.

His memories were gone. All the sad, tragic, devastating moments of his life – were gone. All the pain and disappointment and guilt – everything was gone. He didn't have to be burdened with them anymore. Instead, he could just be that person he had once told her he was in 1864.

And even if one day he'd regain his memories, he'd always remember this time, this time right now, this time that was starting today, when all he knew was only how much loved, how wonderful, how happy he was.

Elena smiled to herself with silent resolve. If there was a silver lining to this amnesia situation, that was it.

xxxdelenaxxx

"This is a really, _really_ bad timing," Caroline whispered through her teeth, shaking her head in irritation.

"Yeah, we're definitely going to miss our flight," Stefan said with a resigned sigh. "And there's not even a chance for a refund."

Caroline bit back a smile, drawing reassurance from his humorous attitude, although she wasn't entirely certain if it was him being fearless or perhaps he was just in such a good mood that even the idea of an impeding death wasn't going to ruin it.

They were chained up to massive armchairs, waiting for Mikael to come back. He was talking on the phone in the other room, but for some reason they couldn't hear him, which probably meant that he had a witch on his side and that wasn't making the situation any better.

"How is he even back?" Caroline muttered, pulling on the chains, but they barely moved despite her using all of her vampire strength in an effort to break them. "I hope Elena and Jeremy didn't bring Silas, Quetsiya and Katherine back too while they were at it."

Stefan frowned. "Do you think this has something to do with Damon and Bonnie coming back?"

"Who knows? Maybe they opened some kind of a portal and all kinds of evil weirdos sneaked back in." Caroline rolled her eyes. "What does he want anyway?"

"Well," Stefan smiled sourly, "at least that's easy to figure."

"Is it?" Caroline asked dubiously, giving him a questioning look. "Do you think he's here for revenge?" She asked, struck by the thought.

Stefan shrugged. "If it wasn't for me Klaus wouldn't have succeeded in killing him."

Caroline's forehead wrinkled in thought. "It looks more like he wants something from us," she said, squinting into the distance.

"We could sell him the boarding house," Stefan said after a pause.

Caroline glanced at him with a confused frown. "He wouldn't be able to move in."

"Exactly," Stefan said with a sly smile.

Caroling stifled a laugh. "I see you're still in a great mood."

Stefan looked at Caroline, his smile turning wistful. He tilted his head backwards and sighed. "My brother died to bring me back from the dead," he said, his voice growing quiet and serious. "He...died. And now he's back. He's alive. He's going to live." Stefan laughed under his breath and Caroline smiled at him warmly in understanding. "I think in the mood I'm in today, I could befriend all Batman villains," Stefan added matter-of-factly.

Caroline chuckled. "I think befriending Mikael would be quite enough. Unfortunately, I'm afraid _his_ mood today is probably a little too sinister for that."

Stefan smiled, but then the door opened and Mikael came back into the room regarding Stefan and Caroline with steely eyes.

"Where is my daughter?" He asked abruptly and squinted, because the surprise that appeared on both Stefan's and Caroline's faces seemed utterly sincere.

"Rebekah?" Caroline widened her eyes at him and laughed mirthlessly. "So this is what it's all about? You're looking for Rebekah? How the hell can we know where she is? We're not exactly friends. In fact, she kind of killed my best friend, so I really couldn't care less about keeping tabs on her."

Caroline rolled her eyes, but Mikael didn't seem too convinced.

"I know she's here. I've been tracking her."

"If you know she's here then why you're asking us where she is?" Stefan asked in a mockingly cautious voice. Caroline stifled a smile.

Mikael ignored him. "Let's try a different question. Where is the child?"

If they seemed a little puzzled before, now Stefan and Caroline looked positively mystified.

"Where is _what_?" Caroline asked, wincing and shaking her head in complete bafflement.

Stefan's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "I think now you've officially lost us," he said slowly.

Mikael shifted his eyes between them, a trace of irritation in his voice. "You really don't know anything, do you?"

"Exactly!" Caroline exclaimed with a huff. "Can we go now? We have a plane to catch," she said impatiently.

Mikael grimaced sardonically. "You may be useless as far as providing information is concerned, but perhaps your usefulness as leverage will be more impressive."

xxxdelenaxxx

Jeremy thought he was feeling perfectly calm - up until the moment when the door actually opened and people began walking out of the group therapy session.

He was standing near the wall opposite to the door, unable to form a coherent sentence in his head, his eyes latching onto every person that would emerge from the room.

And just when he started worrying that perhaps he got the room number wrong, a familiar silhouette appeared in the hallway, her hair slightly longer than he remembered.

Jeremy took a step forward, but then froze, suddenly unable to take another step, overwhelmed by the sense of joy he had fully anticipated. However, anticipating something and feeling it were two completely different things and for a few moments Jeremy couldn't do anything but smile sheepishly and blink back the tears.

Bonnie didn't seem to notice him, her arms crossed over her chest, a strained smile plastered onto her lips as she was looking at and listening to a man next to her, who was talking with a passion about something.

"Bonnie," Jeremy whispered almost involuntarily, his own voice finally shaking him out of his reverie. He could almost feel the wind on his face, that wind that had been slamming against him when he had been running madly through the forest, trying to find her.

"Bonnie!"

He called her name again and thought that his voice sounded as desperate and dismayed as when he had been calling her name over and over and over again that horrible night half a year ago.

And perhaps it was that desperation in his voice that now made Bonnie shudder, her eyes darting to him.

Jeremy couldn't tell what she was thinking. She looked at him, just a casual look of curiosity at first, but then something changed in her face. The person next to Bonnie looked between them in slight confusion.

"Bonnie," Jeremy repeated, not even knowing how his legs carried him across the space between them, so he was now standing right in front of her.

"I'm Andrew, hi," Bonnie's companion said after a moment of awkward silence that fell, during which Bonnie and Jeremy were just looking at each other with wide eyes. "And you are..." Andrew gave Jeremy a questioning look, glancing at Bonnie.

"I'm Jeremy," Jeremy said without averting his eyes from Bonnie. "Bonnie's boyfriend," he added, shifting his eyes to Andrew for a second.

Andrew was staring at him in stupefaction which prevented him from noticing that at first Bonnie looked just as stupefied, but then she quickly regained her composure and to Jeremy's surprise and joy laced her arm through his and confirmed:

"Yep, he is."

"Sorry, I didn't... know," Andrew muttered in bafflement, a slightly hurt expression on his face.

Bonnie shrugged, giving him a small, apologetic smile.

"OK," Andrew smiled uncomfortably. "Sorry. I guess I'll just..." He excused himself and walked off.

Jeremy's eyes darted back to Bonnie, but the smile vanished off his face and changed into a stunned frown, when as soon as Andrew disappeared around the corner, Bonnie let go of Jeremy's arm and took a hasty step back.

"Thanks," she said with an amused, grateful smile. "That was really nice of you," she laughed again and briskly turned around to head down the hallway.

For a few moments Jeremy just looked after Bonnie, blinking in confusion, but then he snapped out of it and rushed after her.

"Bonnie, wait!" He called, quickly catching up with her.

She stopped in her tracks and gave him a questioning look.

"Bonnie, I-"

"OK, my name's not Bonnie," Bonnie said with a brief laugh. "It was just for the picture. I mean, I like it better than Alice, but-"

"No, Bonnie," Jeremy grasped her shoulders and Bonnie widened her eyes at him – and inwardly at herself that her first instinct wasn't to snatch herself free, but rather lean into him. "This is your real name. And... I really am your boyfriend," he added quietly with a nervous smile.

Bonnie stared at him, completely befuddled and Jeremy began worrying that this revelation was more upsetting to her than he could've ever predicted, but then he noticed the tears in her eyes and with a grimace of a smile he pulled her into his arms and felt a wave of relief wash over him when after a moment of hesitation Bonnie hugged him back.

"Wait, my name really is Bonnie?" She asked with a hesitant smile, drawing back to look at him, but not quite breaking their embrace.

Jeremy nodded with a grin.

Bonnie laughed, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. "I guess I'm a little clairvoyant."

Jeremy's mouth twitched and he gave her a radiant smile before hugging her again. "Yeah, a little."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Thank you. I wouldn't have packed so fast without you," Alaric said with a smile, giving Meredith a hug before tossing his suitcase into the trunk and shutting it closed. "And since Mystic Falls is now off-limits to all the species but one, I couldn't even have gone to the boarding house myself at all."

"Well, I could think of better ways to spend my morning than rummaging through my boyfriend's best friend's underwear drawer, but I'm sure Damon will appreciate that you got him his own clothes," Meredith said with a smile and Alaric smiled back at her. "So you're going to meet with Stefan and Caroline at the airport?"

"That's the plan. Hopefully they'll make it on time." He opened the driver's door, but then hesitated for a second. "We've given up. We shouldn't have. Elena and Jeremy were right all along," he said thoughtfully.

Meredith placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly in a comforting gesture. "I wouldn't say they were right. They were just clinging to hope."

"Like we all should have."

"Don't blame yourself. You weren't being idle. You were being reasonable."

"That's no excuse. Especially considering my own biography," Alaric said with a wry smile, but stopped Meredith from saying anything more with a kiss. "I'll be fine, don't worry. As long as there's time to make up for one's mistakes, all's well," he said and they exchanged another kiss and a smile before Alaric got into the car.

Meredith stepped back and wrapping her long sweater tighter around herself watched Alaric drive away.

xxxdelenaxxx

Jeremy told Bonnie a little bit about her family and friends, trying to avoid discussing the circumstances of her... disappearance. He thought it'd be best to wait with discussing that until they got home and he hoped Bonnie would feel the same way, although he could already tell from the cheerful way in which she kept asking him tons of questions that it wouldn't be easy to do without making her suspect that he wasn't being entirely honest with her.

"I wonder if their meeting went as well as ours," Jeremy said with a small smile, looking at Bonnie with bright eyes.

She smiled back at him and walked through the door that he held open for her.

"Well," Bonnie said, stopping in her tracks half way through the stairs and squinting into the distance. "I think it went pretty well," she said with a trace of humor in her voice.

Jeremy followed Bonnie's gaze and inwardly rolled his eyes at the sight of Elena and Damon standing in the far corner of the park, kissing in a way that made him wonder if Damon hadn't somehow gotten his memories back already.

With a brief laugh Jeremy took Bonnie's hand in his and unhurriedly, they made their way across the garden.

"He doesn't kiss all the strangers like that, just so you know," Bonnie announced loudly, to Jeremy's amusement unceremoniously interrupting the moment.

Damon and Elena pulled away from each other and Elena's eyes widened at the sight of Bonnie who suddenly realized that it all actually made sense, just like she had predicted. Jeremy had said that this girl, his sister, was Bonnie's best friend. So it made sense that the idea of her best friend's boyfriend dating someone else was making her angry. It seemed so simple Bonnie was surprised she hadn't thought of that before.

"Bonnie!" Elena leaped toward Bonnie and hugged her.

"Hi," Bonnie said, feeling a little awkward, but also unable to stop grinning at all the heartwarming gestures. For three long months she had never really lost hope that there were some people in this world who cared about her, but at the same time she was haunted by a nagging fear that perhaps there weren't. Now all the fears were gone and all that was left was even more hope and she was excited to go back to the home she had left behind... or had been ripped away from... or...

"How did it happen?" Bonnie cut in, following the train of thought that had sprung to her mind and interrupting Elena who was just introducing Jeremy to Damon."How did we... get lost?" Bonnie rephrased her question in a softer tone, glancing at Damon.

She thought the question was rather simple, but to her puzzlement it seemed to make both Elena and Jeremy rather uncomfortable.

"It's a long story," Jeremy said with a frown that quickly turned into a reassuring smile. "It's a little too complicated to explain in just a few words."

Bonnie shrugged. "So explain it in as many words as you want," she said with an encouraging smile.

Damon looked between Elena and Jeremy who exchanged hesitant glances. Elena bit her lip, the light in her eyes dimming a little.

"I have a _feeling_," Damon said with a glimpse of amusement in his eyes, giving Bonnie a meaningful look, "that's not a happy tale, so why don't we skip it for today?" He shifted his eyes to Elena who to his contentment looked grateful for the intervention.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at Damon, biting back a comment that considering the circumstances, it might've been be more prudent to wait with make-out sessions until after at least one Q&A session.

"That's a great idea," Jeremy agreed hastily. "Let's go grab your stuff and go," he said in one breath.

Bonnie blinked. "Go where?"

"Go home," Jeremy replied immediately, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Elena widened her eyes at him, already guessing that putting it like that was not the wisest thing to do.

"But we have heart surgeries coming up this week," Bonnie said uncertainly, reluctant to find the behavior of their miraculously found loved ones suspicious just yet, but she was beginning to feel that they were acting a bit strange.

"We have awesome medical care in Virginia," Jeremy said brusquely.

"Yes," Elena confirmed, still hoping that compulsion wouldn't be necessary, but the skeptical look in Bonnie's eyes was beginning to make her think otherwise.

Jeremy gave Elena a pointed look and with a small frown, she took a step toward Bonnie and lightly grasping her forearms looked deeply into her eyes.

"Bonnie, everything is alright. You want to go home immediately and you want to talk about what happened six months ago only once we're there," Elena said, trying not to manipulate Bonnie's mind more than necessary. "You're going to get along with everything that we say until then," she added softly.

Damon watched Elena in slight confusion. He would've just assumed she was being funny if it wasn't for a glimpse of utter seriousness in her gaze and voice.

Elena gave Bonnie a small, slightly apologetic smile before drawing back. Jeremy opened his mouth to reiterate his suggestion that they should hurry, but then, to both Elena's and Jeremy's consternation Bonnie laughed.

"OK," Bonnie said, clearly amused. "That was good. For a moment there I thought you were trying to hypnotize me or something," she laughed again and then waved her hand. "Fine. Let's go... home." She smiled to herself at the word. "But right now let's go to the cafeteria, because I'm starving and I'm sure you didn't have lunch today yet either," she said cheerfully, grabbing Jeremy's hand and pulling him with her toward the hospital building.

Too stunned to object, Jeremy shot Elena a questioning look over his shoulder, but she just shook her head, equally astonished that the compulsion hadn't worked. Both Damon and Bonnie were obviously human, they weren't wearing vervain... why would they? And even if they did, she would've noticed. But apart from Damon still having his ring, they weren't wearing any bracelets or necklaces, anything that could contain vervain.

"Elena, are you alright?" Damon touched Elena's shoulder and gently turned her toward him. Sneaking his other hand around her waist, he drew her back into his arms and the gesture made her smile despite all the troubling thoughts running through her head.

Leaning into Damon's touch when he brushed his fingertips over her chin and cupped her cheek, Elena sighed and frowned, glancing around the garden with unseeing eyes.

"I don't want you and Bonnie to think that we're hiding something from you," she said quietly. "It's just really not possible to explain everything right away. There are so many things... So many things happened-"

She fell silent when Damon placed a finger across her lips. She looked up at him.

"You'll tell us when you're ready," he said, looking at her intently with a warm smile flickering across his lips and in his eyes. "Unless you want to tell me that we broke up and you're just being kind to an invalid."

Elena stifled a smile. "Actually, we did break up," she said after a moment of consideration with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. "Several times."

Damon smirked, a small twinge of worry caused by her words concerning the break-up vanishing upon hearing the count. He widened his eyes at her. "Several times? That's amazing. Why did you keep messing up?"

Elena laughed and Damon grinned back at her_._

"We just had a slightly... tumultuous relationship," Elena said tentatively and held her breath when Damon inched his mouth closer to hers.

"Tumultuous how?" He asked, intrigued.

Elena's gaze darted to his lips before flickering back to his eyes. "All kinds of disasters happened to us," she said in a low voice and Damon stilled his movements and looked at her thoughtfully, anxious curiosity replacing amusement. "But we survived them all," she said with a faint smile, tears gathering in her eyes once again. "We always survive," she added barely above a whisper.

They looked at each other in silence for a few moments, before Bonnie and Jeremy began shouting at them from the steps to catch up.

Damon clasped Elena's hand tightly in his and led her toward the building. They didn't speak on their way to the cafeteria, but Elena felt as if thousands of words were emanating just from the way he held her hand in his.

"Let's have a toast," Bonnie proposed, raising a glass of water once they were seated at a small, round table.

Everyone followed the suit, raising their drinks.

"To Bonnie and Clyde," Jeremy said, tipping his glass toward everyone.

Bonnie and Elena laughed while Damon rolled his eyes.

They took sips from their water glasses-

"Elena!" Damon quickly leaped toward her when with a muffled groan she began coughing and choking on the water, her face contorting in pain.

To Bonnie's bewilderment, the water seemed to _burn_ Elena's lips, droplets of water making Elena's skin sizzle, the scent of burnt flesh permeating the air.

Jeremy's eyes flew wide open and he jumped to his feet, his anxious gaze meeting Elena's when she whispered in a strained voice: "Vervain."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Is anyone under the impression that I'm writing too fast? Because I am lol But I'm going to keep it up for as long as I can, i.e. until RL starts interfering ;) Thank you SO MUCH for your stunning reviews! :):):)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 6**

Perplexed, Bonnie shifted her eyes to Jeremy and with a twinge of anxiety acknowledged that he looked alarmingly pale, which rather defied her initial thought that she might've only imagined seeing Elena's skin burn for a few seconds.

"We have to get out of here," Jeremy whispered, glancing around, noticing that everyone in the cafeteria was looking at them. "Now," he added, giving Bonnie a desperately pleading look and then looking at Damon whose attention was fully focused on Elena.

More worried than confused, Damon was hurriedly wiping the water off Elena's face, suspecting that there must've been something in her glass. There really wasn't any other rational explanation for water to burn her skin.

"Is everything alright?" Amanda suddenly appeared next to their table, looking between the four of them with concern. However, after a quick assessment of the situation, concern seemed to fade off her face and turn into cold alertness.

"She just choked on water-" Bonnie tried to explain, but stopped abruptly in mid-sentence when to her dismay, instead of helping Elena, Amanda grabbed two glasses and splashed even more water over Elena – and some over Jeremy.

The water didn't have any effect on Jeremy, Elena, however, screamed and Bonnie's eyes widened almost to the point of no return at the sight of Elena's skin actually catching_ fire_ from _water_. People in the cafeteria began screaming, jumping off their seats and running to the door in panic.

"Why the hell did you do this?!" Damon shouted, completely shocked by Amanda's actions, dousing the fire on Elena's skin with his bare hands. "Elena!" he whispered, horrified, wincing at the pain she must be feeling, but then stilling his movements for just a second when he realized that Elena's scorched skin was healing all by itself almost immediately, blisters closing, burnt flesh regaining its natural texture and color. He drew a sharp breath, astonished but relieved, his hands flying up to very gently cup Elena's face. "Are you OK?" He asked breathlessly, his eyes wide from worry.

Elena nodded quickly, trying to decide on the best way of getting out of this predicament.

"Get away from her!" Amanda cried out. "All of you! She's not human! She's a monster!"

Unable to even comprehend what she was hearing, Bonnie stared at Jeremy who knocked Amanda down to the floor when a syringe flashed in her hand.

"Get Elena out of here!" Jeremy screamed.

Damon blinked, his mind reeling, but he didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed Elena's hand and ran with her to the door.

Bonnie shifted her terrified gaze between them and Jeremy, not knowing what to do, whether she should stay or follow them and what exactly was going on anyway.

"No!" Amanda yelped, pushing Jeremy away and making to follow Damon and Elena. "She'll kill you!

Bonnie looked after her, a single, quick, abstract thought springing to her mind, that she didn't want Damon and Elena to get hurt. Bonnie's eyes flickered to Amanda's feet and then, for no viable reason whatsoever, Amanda tripped. Bonnie frowned at the strangely firm conviction that somehow she had caused it, but she didn't have much time to dwell on that, because Jeremy grabbed her hand and pulled her with him toward the other door.

"What's going on here?!" Bonnie demanded, considering snatching her hand free, but not doing it, because for some inexplicable reason she felt a sudden rush of trust toward this boy she had technically known for half an hour. What was even more bizarre, was that this situation reminded her of something. The fear she felt... or rather the fear she _didn't_ feel... It was as if she knew she should be afraid, but she wasn't. Also, every time Jeremy adjusted his hold on her hand she... _remembered_, for the lack of a better word, that she could trust him.

"I told you it's not easy to explain," Jeremy replied, glancing at Bonnie over his shoulder as they continued running across the bright hospital corridors.

"Not easy?" Bonnie snorted dryly, sliding her fingers in between his without even thinking about it. "You mean there actually is an explanation for all of that? That's awesome."

They turned around the corner into another hallway, but had to start running into the opposite direction when a couple of white-clad people emerged from the elevator and began chasing them. Bonnie marveled inwardly at the utter ridiculousness of what was suddenly happening around her.

"We need to get out of the building," Jeremy said, squeezing Bonnie's hand in his. "Can we get out through the roof?"

"How can I know?" Bonnie asked, peering over her shoulder at the growing number of people running after them. She always found scenes like that unsettling in the movies, but in the reality they were downright creepy.

"I thought you might've done some exploring," Jeremy said, flashing Bonnie a smile when they reached a closed-off staircase and began climbing the stairs, taking two steps at a time. "Don't tell me you spent three months just watching TV with Damon."

"We did some exploring together," Bonnie said, briefly wondering if they would've been able to run faster if they weren't holding hands, but she quickly dismissed the idea. "But it's not like I was jotting down escape routes for future reference. We threw a low-profile pajama party on the roof only once," she added with a shrug.

Jeremy shot her an odd look over his shoulder and then laughed under his breath.

"What?" Bonnie demanded with a frown.

"Don't tell Caroline about that," Jeremy offered in an amused tone. "She'd never give you a break."

"Why? "Bonnie asked, wrinkling her nose as they made their way to the top and got onto the roof through a small door. "Who is Caroline?"

xxxdelenaxxx

"Have we just..." Caroline looked around the large space, taking in the ornate wooden furniture and the high ceiling. She had no memory of the last few seconds, just a blur of colors and the next thing she knew they weren't in Stefan's apartment anymore.

"Been teleported to New Orleans," Davina finished the sentence for her, gracefully stepping in front of them.

"And who the hell are you?" Caroline asked impatiently. "I'm so tired of people appearing out of nowhere thinking it makes them intimidating or something," she muttered, glancing at Stefan whose good mood was apparently unwavering and allowed him to just wordlessly nod his agreement to Caroline's words, a glimpse of humor flickering in his eyes. "It's actually pretentious," Caroline said loudly, sending a glare Davina's way.

"I'm going to make sure that Klaus won't ever hurt anyone again," Davina said with confidence that sounded as unshaken as misguided, if only because of how imperious the girl's voice was.

"That's an admirable goal," Stefan said, squinting, "however, and don't take it the wrong way, helping Mikael, for whatever reason, is very, very, very stupid."

"Yes, Mikael is fifty times worse than Klaus!" Caroline exclaimed in an impetuous manner, crossing her arms over her chest. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Stefan glance at her in a way that almost made her laugh. She cleared her throat. "Or... at least... ten times worse," she amended.

"I'd say eight," Stefan said with a completely straight face in a speculative voice, as if he was genuinely trying to come up with the best estimation. "And a half," he added after a moment of consideration, tilting his head from side to side and it took all of Caroline's self-control not to chortle.

"He's just using you," Caroline said with a disdainful smile, looking unblinkingly at Davina and trying to put herself into a combative mood, because she didn't think that they were going to get out of this situation unscathed if they made being silly their survival method of choice.

"Maybe I'm using him," Davina said with a trace of annoyance in her voice.

"Good for you," Caroline chirped sourly. "Now could you continue using each other and kindly leave us out of it?"

"Hey, don't be rude to her!"

Caroline and Stefan looked to their right only then noticing that they weren't alone in what looked like a large attic. Two more people, a man who had just spoken and a fragile-looking woman were standing in the other side of the room.

"And you're what, a Stockholm Syndrome case?" Caroline snapped at Marcel who was glaring at her.

"Davina, you don't want to be doing all that," Camille said in a calm, pleading voice, her eyes fixed on the young witch. She started walking toward her, but stopped when Davina averted her eyes from her and took a step back.

"Mikael doesn't control me. I'm controlling him," Davina said haughtily, looking Caroline straight in the eye. "And in case you wondered," she said, thrusting up her chin and slightly pursing her lips. "This room is under a spell, so don't even think about leaving it." She turned on her heels and left the room, locking the door behind her.

"Funny, that's exactly what I wanted to start thinking about," Stefan said with a thin smile. Caroline sighed, glaring daggers at the door. "But if this room is under a spell, why did she lock the door?" Stefan mused out loud when Davina's footsteps quieted down.

"She's very powerful. Don't underestimate her," Marcel said in a grim, solemn voice.

Caroline's head turned into his direction. "I hate to break this to you, but judging from the fact that you're locked up here, it seems that she isn't as much into you as you're into her."

Marcel narrowed his eyes at Caroline in annoyance. "You don't know anything about me or her, so you might want to stop with ridiculous insinuations."

"She isn't a bad person," Camille cut in, catching Caroline's gaze. "She thinks she's doing the right thing."

Caroline laughed derisively. "Sure."

"If Damon is human, then maybe Bonnie is a witch again," Stefan suddenly said in a low voice, staring thoughtfully into the distance.

Caroline's attention was immediately drawn back to him. "What do you mean?"

"They seem to have reverted back to their original... forms, so to speak, right?"

"Right," Caroline said with a gasp. "Bonnie could get us out of here! If she remembered how to be a witch," she added after a pause, her enthusiasm dwindling. "Even if Elena and Jeremy told her everything, would she believe them? And even if she believed them, would she know what to do? Before, she had her Grams to guide her and now she doesn't even have a Shane," Caroline said dejectedly.

"Considering everything that happened, maybe we should give her more credit," Stefan said cautiously. "I hope Alaric just went ahead and flew to them," he added after a pause.

Caroline stifled a groan. "If we only had a phone."

"I have a phone."

Caroline's eyes flew to Camille who gave her a small smile and produced the phone out of her pocket. "I don't really have anyone to call, though," she said with a humorless smile, blinking rapidly and Caroline's mouth twitched at the sight of tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. Whoever you've lost, I'm sorry," Caroline said sincerely and a sharp look on Marcel's face seemed to soften a little.

Camille's eyes widened in slight surprise and she nodded, a faint smile flitting across her face. "Thank you. Here," she said, extending her hand with the phone to Caroline who accepted it with a brief, grateful smile.

Caroline looked down at the phone and then suddenly she frowned and grimaced. "Do you remember anyone's phone number?" She asked, shifting her eyes to Stefan who looked at her in confusion, before he realized what the problem was.

"I remember Damon's," he offered.

"Very helpful, thanks," Caroline said wryly. "Elena and Jeremy don't even have their phones with them anyway," she muttered to herself. But then her expression brightened and she straightened up. "I remember Enzo's number!" she exclaimed with a smile.

Stefan blinked. "Of all the phone numbers out there, you remember Enzo's phone number," he aimed to verify, his voice serious, but not devoid of undeniable amusement that wasn't lost on Caroline who rolled her eyes and laughed.

"He keeps sending me these stupid texts every once in a while, but I've never put his number into my address book, so every time he sends me a message, I see his number on the screen and it just stuck in my head," she explained and narrowed her eyes at Stefan when he made a face, pretending not to believe her explanation. "OK," she said, resuming a determined tone. "Oh, by the way, I'm Caroline and this is Stefan," she added, glancing at their fellow captives, before turning her gaze back to the phone.

Camille gave them both a smile. "I'm Camille."

"Marcel. Terrific to meet you," Marcel said dryly, his tone a little more resigned than upset.

"I'm sorry if I was being a little brusque. We've had a stressful day," Caroline said with a sigh. "Year."

"Life," Stefan corrected and Caroline smiled.

"Well, we can bond over that," Marcel allowed with a humorless snort.

"Don't worry. I'm a psychology major. I get it," Camille said conversationally.

"I was thinking about majoring in psychology!" Caroline said enthusiastically and then sighed deeply and added in a low, grumpy voice. "But I got a little sidetracked by two thousand years old evil witches impersonating my friends, evil vampires overtaking the bodies of my friends, evil spirits invading my home town and I'm just mentioning the most recent highlights."

Camille looked between Stefan and Caroline sympathetically. "Well," she said, "on the bright side, that's got to be the best why-I-dropped-out-of-college excuse I've ever heard."

There was a moment of silence and then the four of them exchanged more relaxed, sincere smiles.

xxxdelenaxxx

After running through a couple of conveniently uncrowded hallways and making sure they weren't followed when they sneaked onto a different floor, Damon pulled Elena into a room that he knew was probably empty.

"It's only the first floor. We'll jump out of the window," he said, closing the door behind them. "Are you OK?" He asked once again, placing his hands on either side of Elena's face and looking at her searchingly.

Elena covered his hands with hers. "As long as you're with me I'm always OK."

Damon gave her a lop-sided smile and pulled her into a hug. "I'd like to hear more about this tumultuous relationship of ours, because so far it seems completely idyllic to me," he said pressing a lingering kiss to her cheek before drawing back.

Elena smiled faintly. "And you're saying that right after seeing my skin melt off my face and then heal by itself."

"Nothing I haven't seen in some of those terrible movies Bonnie insisted on watching," Damon said with a shrug, returning her smile.

Elena slid her hands over his shoulders and snuggled into his arms that promptly closed around her. "I love you," she whispered frenziedly and Damon's breath caught in his throat. He grimaced and smiled, overwhelmed by the memory evoked by her words, nothing clear or precise, just a feeling, a familiar feeling of hearing these words spoken in her voice before.

"I figured that much," Damon said with feigned smugness, closing his eyes and cradling Elena to him, reveling in their closeness.

Elena stifled a smile. "I missed you so much," she whispered, her voice beginning to quiver and Damon gently grasped her arms to look at her.

"I'm sure we can find mutually satisfying ways to make up for the lost time," he said with a wink in an attempt to cheer her up.

Elena snorted brokenly and looked away, her eyes shifting back to him when he propped her chin with his hand.

"You can tell me exactly what's going on, Elena. You know that, right?" He asked gently. "I may have lost my memories, but I'm not a different person. I'm pretty sure I can handle the truth."

"I know." Elena nodded. "We never lie to each other. That's kind of one of our things," she said with a small smile. "Like dancing and surprise kisses." They exchanged brief, giddy smiles before Elena continued with a deepening frown. "I... The water burnt my throat and my skin, because... there was vervain in it and vervain," she carried on before Damon had a chance to ask what vervain was, "is poisonous to... people like me."

"Beautiful, smart, funny?..."

Elena bit back a smile and drew a breath, her eyes meeting his. "It's poisonous to vampires."

Damon blinked, his eyebrows knitting in bafflement. "Vampires?" He echoed, but in a such a tone as if he was merely trying to verify if he had pronounced the word correctly. "You're a vampire?" He asked heedfully, his reaction catching Elena off guard in the most mollifying way.

There was an astounding amount of calmness to his curiosity and she was amazed that anyone could react like that to such a revelation, without initially finding it either horrifying or hilarious at best. But Damon seemed to instinctively trust her enough to know that she was telling the truth and that she wouldn't hurt him. Or perhaps it was just him, being who he was. Elena clenched her teeth. Contrary to some words that drifted to her from the distant past, without the memory of all the awful things that had happened to him, of all the things he had done, it seemed that trust came very naturally to him.

"We both are. Were," Elena said quietly. "You were a vampire too, before... Before you and Bonnie... before you..." Elena shivered and closed her eyes for a second. "You didn't just get lost. You... died."

She let go of a breath she didn't know she had been holding and looked at Damon, waiting for his reaction, for him to either laugh or stare at her in horror, but he did neither. He just blinked a few times and then looked at her with a hint of dismay in his eyes.

"Did I do this to you?" He asked, cradling her face in his warm hands, trying to put the puzzle pieces together and immediately jumping to seemingly plausible conclusions. "Did I make you a vampire?"

"No," Elena shook her head, not really prepared for him to focus on that aspect of the situation, although she wasn't surprised that he didn't seem very concerned with what had happened to him and directed his attention to what had happened to her instead. "I mean... Your blood made me a vampire, but... It's a long story. It was more of an accident. No, you didn't turn me into a vampire," Elena repeated just to make it perfectly clear, because Damon still looked skeptical and she didn't want him to think that she was just being vague for his benefit. "But you taught me how to be one," she added, reaching out and placing her hand on his cheek. "When it happened, when I became a vampire, I didn't know if I could handle this, if I even wanted to live like that at all. But you were there for me, with me, at all times, even when I wasn't there for myself. You made me feel safe, happy, alive and loved. You saved me."

She covered one of his hands with hers and gently pulling it away from her cheek, wanted to press a kiss to his palm when she noticed the burns on it, suddenly remembering that he had been dousing the vervain-induced fire with his bare hands. With a grimace, Elena bit into her own palm with her fangs and then offered her hand to Damon.

"Just drink. This will heal you. This will heal your heart and it will also make the burns disappear," she said softly, her lips twitching into a timid smile. "One of the perks of being a vampire. Your blood can cure human diseases and injuries."

Damon's eyes shifted between her face and her bleeding hand and Elena braced herself for a forced smile or a flicker of disgust in his eyes, but he surprised her once again.

Without breaking the eye-contact with her, he gently grasped her hand. "So we're just being practical, not kinky?" He asked with a convivial smile, lowering his mouth to the small wound and taking a few sips. When he drew back, he watched the wound heal and tentatively, he brushed his thumb over the invisible scar.

"You said I saved you," he murmured, still looking at her hand. "What did _you_ save me from?" He asked with a pensive smile, shifting his eyes to her and for a second Elena wondered if the drinking of her blood hadn't triggered some memories.

"Nicely deduced," she said, smiling wistfully at the callback and catching herself wishing that he'd smile at it knowingly too.

But wasn't it selfish, wishing him to remember? She was becoming more and more certain that she wanted to protect him from painful memories altogether.

"Can you turn me into a vampire?" Damon suddenly asked and Elena widened her eyes at him, unprepared for him to formulate the question so soon, taken aback by such an immediate request.

On the one hand, she had no doubt that if he had his memories intact, he wouldn't even want to talk about it. It would've been out of the question. He had made that quite clear when he had almost died refusing to take the cure. On the other hand, however... Obviously, his amnesia didn't give her the right to make his choices for him, but just like she was certain he would've chosen immortality by her side, she was also certain that had the situation been reversed, he would've insisted on giving her some time to make her decision only after proper consideration.

"You didn't even ask what this entails," Elena said with a hesitant smile, wondering if it was possible to describe all the dark sides of being a vampire without prompting him to ask her questions concerning the things he had done.

Damon pulled her against his chest. "Being with you for all eternity," he said, tucking loose strands of hair behind her ear.

Elena chuckled weakly. "That too, but-"

He captured her lips in a brief, soft kiss. "I want to be with you for all eternity, so if that's the only way, I'm in," he said under his breath, looking at her seriously.

Elena stared at him in amazement. "You barely know me," she blurted out, feeling guilty for how his words were making her feel. They were making her happy and she was so tempted to just give in, but the nagging conviction that this wouldn't be right by him was making it impossible for her to just enthusiastically agree with his rash decision. "You don't remember me... us..." Elena whispered, her voice faltering.

Damon regarded her thoughtfully for a few seconds. "Yes, I don't remember the past" he finally said, his voice quiet and a little hoarse and Elena felt a pang of pain in her chest when he raised his hand to her face to caress it, the gesture clashing with his words. "I don't _remember_ that I loved you."

Elena inhaled sharply and nodded erratically, trying to keep a brave face and not to break into sobs, reminding herself that he was just being honest with her and that was what she wanted and that she couldn't rightfully expect-

But her train of thought was cut short when Damon gently cupped her face in his hands and said, his eyes boring into hers with utmost intensity:

"But I _feel_ that I did, do and will."

Elena gasped and smiled the most radiant smile that somehow made tears gather in her eyes. Damon pulled her into his arms and held her, smiling into her hair.

"I missed you too," he whispered and Elena looked up at him, but then the sounds of movement in the hallway brought them back to the matter at hand and their current predicament.

"We have to go," Damon said, quickly opening the window, about to assist Elena in stepping over the sill.

But she took his hands in hers and wrapped them around her neck instead. "Hold on to me," she said with a glimpse of a smile in her eyes.

To Damon's surprise, they not only landed on the ground as effortlessly as if they had taken a single step down the stairs, but then they also walked off... ran... flew... he wasn't quite sure how to name it... away so fast that they found themselves thirty miles away from the hospital within three seconds.

xxxdelenaxxx

Escaping through the roof and then climbing down the building was the most exciting thing Bonnie remembered doing, unfortunately the excitement was gone the moment they were unexpectedly caught when trying to sneak past the entrance gate.

"He didn't do anything!" Bonnie shouted, watching the security officers seize Jeremy by his arms while she was being restrained by a doctor and a nurse she had never seen before.

"They're not who you think they are," Amanda hissed, giving Bonnie a look that was both silencing and concerned, which somehow irritated Bonnie even more.

"How do you know?" Bonnie snapped. "You don't know them!"

"You don't know them either!" Amanda retorted.

Bonnie didn't have an immediate response to that, but was determined to continue arguing anyway. However, suddenly a police car pulled into the parking lot nearby and soon they were approached by two officers whom Amanda seemed to know.

She quickly went on to explain to the police officers what had happened... which was definitely not what had happened, but Bonnie's attempts at telling the truth were unceremoniously dismissed as ramblings of a mentally unstable patient.

"That's ridiculous!" Jeremy snarled incredulously. He didn't care about being arrested as he was sure this would get sorted out soon enough. But he couldn't stand the thought of leaving Bonnie all alone in this place for even an hour longer, especially after this entire commotion. He was afraid they might hurt her while trying to make her give them answers she wasn't able to provide due to her amnesia anyway. "You can't arrest me, I didn't do anything! What exactly am I accused of?" Jeremy asked angrily when one of the police officers handcuffed him, pushed him into the car and then stepped slightly to the side to talk to Amanda.

In the meantime, the other policeman slid into the passenger seat.

"They want you arrested, so do yourself a favor and go along with it for now," the police officer said in a low, gritty voice. Jeremy was about to continue protesting, but was suddenly struck by the realization that he had heard this voice before. In the haze of the moment he hadn't even looked up at the policemen's faces, his eyes almost exclusively fixed on Bonnie for the entire time.

Enzo glanced at him over his shoulder.

"You?" Jeremy grimaced, blinking, and leaning forward in his seat. "What are you doing here?" He asked in bewilderment.

"Investigating," Enzo said off-handedly, squinting. "And you're interrupting."

"Investigating what?" Jeremy demanded. "You knew Bonnie and Damon were here? How could you not tell us?!"

Enzo rolled his eyes, propping his chin on his hand and glancing out of the car window at the other officer and Amanda, the two of them talking to the security guards while the doctor and the nurse proceeded to escorting Bonnie back into the building.

Bonnie gritted her teeth, feeling like kicking and screaming, but clinging to the common sense pulsating almost painfully in her head, advising her to keep it together in order not to end up sedated and locked up in some remote room. She caught Jeremy's desperate look and sent him a quick, encouraging smile, trying to make it as intense as possible.

"I don't owe you an explanation," Enzo said, turning away from the window and shifting his gaze to Jeremy again, "but if you must know, I only found out they're here three days ago and I was actually planning on bringing them home as a peace offering," Enzo flashed Jeremy a smile, but Jeremy just continued glaring at him. "I got here last month, following the trail of the Augustine Society. It turns out it wasn't just a local phenomenon. Sixteen centers in twelve states plus quite a few abroad. Twenty three worldwide, altogether," he muttered with a viperous glint in his eye.

"Oh, you mean I'm interrupting you murdering people," Jeremy cut in sardonically and Enzo turned in his seat a little more to look at him.

"I wonder if you'll be restating these concerns if they catch your sister and put her in one of their signature cells for a few years," Enzo said wryly.

Jeremy clenched his jaw and sat back. "So what now?"

"Now you'll spend the night at the police station and we'll decide on what to do next tomorrow. I'll try to find out if Damon and Elena got out."

"I'm not leaving Bonnie here for the night!" Jeremy exclaimed in aggravation. "And why should I trust you anyway? You wanted to kill me!"

"From what I've heard, Damon did kill you and you don't seem to be holding a grudge," Enzo said, snickering humorlessly.

"Well, he also did a few other things since then," Jeremy scoffed, his tone acid.

"Yeah," Enzo snorted under his breath. "Most notably your sister."

Jeremy tossed himself forward, almost tearing the skin off his wrists in an attempt to free them from the handcuffs and punch Enzo straight in the face.

Enzo shot him an impatient, silencing look, shoving him back in place and glancing outside to check if no one was watching what was going on in the car. "Chill out, kid. For all they know your little witch is a clueless human, " Enzo said through his teeth, releasing his hold on Jeremy's shirt and drawing back. "They won't do anything to her. Just might try convincing her you're some kind of a conman with a devious agenda. Nothing you couldn't clear up later with a candle-lit dinner."

Jeremy opened his mouth to argue, but then the door on the driver's side was pulled open and the other police officer got inside. They exchanged some casual comments with Enzo until a buzzing sound interrupted them. Enzo reached into his pocket and Jeremy watched him frown and answer the phone while the other officer was starting the engine.

"Ah," Enzo's frown turned into a crooked smile, "hello, gorgeous. I see you got a new phone number, especially for us, I'm guessing, so we could have some long-overdue secret conversation. You've got my approval and attention."

The other police officer glanced at Enzo and laughed under his breath, shaking his head.

"Do you know that one, special, unique moment in life that is just totally bad for flirting?" The person on the other side of the line spoke in a brisk tone.

"No," Enzo said with feigned caution, smirking to himself.

"Well, actually, you do, because guess what, this moment is right now," Caroline announced and then changed her voice from mockingly cheerful to worrisomely serious. "So please just cut it out and listen up."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Thank you so _so_ SO much for your awesome reviews! :]:]:]

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 7**

"They're not here." Elena shook her head in frustration as soon as she ran into the hotel room only to find it empty.

"Well, it's not like they could get here as fast as we did," Damon pointed out with a reassuring smile, following her inside and closing the door behind them.

He glanced around the room, wondering how their home looked like. Were they living together? If so, what was their bedroom like? Was it bright, well-lit or crepuscular? Was there a hardwood floor that glimmered in the sunlight or a fluffy carpet that encouraged scampering barefooted around the room?

Unlike just yesterday, today thoughts of home were no longer uncertain and unsettling. Instead, they ignited a warm feeling that was radiating from his chest as he was watching Elena walk toward the window and push the heavy curtains aside.

"You're right," Elena nodded with a sigh, only after a moment realizing that he wasn't merely trying to comfort her, but that he was actually right. Bonnie and Jeremy couldn't get to the hotel at the vampire speed.

"We should probably give them an hour, maybe two," Damon continued, walking up to Elena and sliding his hands all the way up from her wrists to her shoulders. She turned around with a faint smile. "But if they won't show up, I'll go back there to see if-"

"No!" Elena interrupted him, grabbing his hands and squeezing them in hers. "I'll go and you'll stay here," she said with an involuntary hint of panic in her voice. She knew it wasn't going to work in the long run, but at least for the time being he wasn't going to participate in any of the supernatural madness if she could help it.

Damon widened his eyes at her. "Elena, that's out of the question."

"Exactly. You won't be going back there. It's not safe," she said in a hasty, definite whisper that he found completely endearing and a little amusing, although it was also heartwrenching, because he suspected where it was coming from, that it had something to do with his "death" and that the mere mentioning of it was breaking her heart, emotions clearly visible in her eyes.

"It's even less safe for you," Damon said with a small, soothing smile, twisting his hands so now it was him grasping hers.

"No, as a vampire I'm stronger and faster, so it's actually less dangerous for me," Elena insisted and an image flashed across his mind, too quickly for him to make sense of it, but he was quite certain it was a shred of memory: Elena zooming to him and knocking something out of his hand, landing on top of him on the bed and pointing what looked like a crossbow at his chest. She looked serious, but he was grinning.

"They wanted to hurt _you_," Damon said, using the hold he had on her hands to tug Elena toward him.

"They won't," Elena said softly and her tone triggered another image. Damon glanced at their intertwined hands that also seemed reminiscent of something.

"_I can't lose you."_

"_You won't."_

"I can take care of myself," Elena continued, slightly thrusting up her chin. "I had a good teacher," she added with a smile and Damon narrowed his eyes at her and then without a warning picked her up from the floor and carried her to the bed.

"I'm not going to change my mind," Elena declared in a rigid tone, just in case he was planning on using some unfair persuasion methods and was going to mistake her leaning her forehead against his cheek with willingness to compromise.

"Is that how we'd solve our disagreements?" Damon asked with a sly smile, turning his head and capturing Elena's lips in a fervid kiss before sitting her down on the edge of the bed.

Elena bit back a smile. "We were working on trying to find different ways of dealing with our disagreements."

"'Working on trying to find'," Damon repeated, smirking. "Sounds like we were failing something terrible." He cupped her cheeks in his hands and pressed a soft kiss to her lips when she laughed. "Don't go anywhere," he said with a wink and then turned around and disappeared into the bathroom.

Straining her ears, Elena wrinkled her forehead and then smiled to herself when she heard the sound of water filling the bathtub.

"Time out," Damon said, sauntering back into the room. "You'll take a hot bath and relax. No thinking about any problems for half an hour." He bent on one knee in front of Elena and tugged one of her shoes off her foot.

"'Step away from your life for five minutes'," Elena said, watching him in silence, their trip to Georgia flickering across her mind. Damon glanced up at her. "You said that when you kidnapped me and we went to Georgia together."

Damon widened his eyes at her, taking her other shoe off. "I kidnapped you?" He asked, Elena's cheerful expression making him smile despite the slightly disconcerting choice of words.

"Well, you saved me from a car accident, I lost consciousness and woke up hours later in your car. I wanted you to drive me back home immediately, but you convinced me to go on a road trip with you instead," Elena explained, her eyes following his movements when he stood up to put her shoes away.

"This actually sounds innocent enough," Damon observed with cautious amusement, slumping onto the bed next to Elena.

"You said you'd checked for broken bones." Elena narrowed her eyes at him in a playfully accusing manner. "While I was unconscious."

Damon stifled a lop-sided smile. "Do you think I did?" He asked, leaning closer and raising his hand to brush a few strands of hair off her forehead.

Elena smiled, leaning into his touch when he cupped her cheek. "No, I think you were just trying to put the image into my head."

"Successfully?" Damon asked, smirking.

"Obviously," Elena said with a grin.

One hand tangled in her hair, Damon gently pushed Elena's mouth against his and kissed her, very slowly, tenderly, his other hand still on her cheek, his thumb caressing the side of her face.

"I wonder when is the uncensored version coming," Damon whispered with a glimpse of amusement in his eyes, tracing the outline of Elena's face with his fingertips when they reluctantly broke the kiss to catch their breaths.

"An uncensored version?" Elena asked with a hesitant smile, her forehead creasing in slight confusion.

"There must be a reason why you kept breaking up with a guy who saved your life, either literally or figuratively, three times, if I counted correctly," Damon said and she could see that he was being humorous, but there was also a hint of sincere curiosity in his expression and Elena began worrying that her plan of only telling him about the good and beautiful things that had happened in the past might be harder to carry on than she had initially thought.

"I didn't say _I_ kept breaking up with you," Elena protested, still looking at him with tenderness that was making his heart race. But he also didn't fail to notice that she tensed a little, not out of nervousness, but out of some immeasurably deep, ardent concern that, somehow, he found even more disquieting. "We both... You broke up with me first, actually." Elena trembled, having drawn too shallow a breath in an attempt to say the words with a lighthearted smile. "To protect me. And then," she trailed off and leaned her forehead against his, holding his face in the palms of her hands. "And then I wanted to convince you it made no sense and you wanted for us to be together again too, but... " Elena caught her lower lip between her teeth, her breathing becoming uneven and for the first time Damon noticed a flash of anger in her eyes in addition to overpowering sadness. "Someone told you I said something that I didn't say," Elena said shakily and straightened up, hastily wiping away the tears as soon as they glimmered in her eyes and Damon scolded himself inwardly for starting a conversation that was so upsetting to her.

"Elena, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." He grimaced, kissing her eyelids before leaning down to look deeply into her eyes. "We don't have to talk about this right now," he said reassuringly. "Although I do want to apologize right now for being an idiot. Well, in case I didn't apologize before."

Elena gave him a questioning look, sliding her hands over his shoulders and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Taking someone else's words for the truth without verifying the truth with you?" Damon explained the reasoning behind his apology with a self-berating eye-roll.

Elena shook her head, smiling weakly. "It wasn't like that. I mean... It's a little complicated to explain, but... I was... away and we weren't able to talk about it," she said evasively. Considering how well he had taken the reveal that she was a vampire, she could probably add to it now and just tell him that she was also a doppelganger, however, she didn't want to bring up Katherine. If there was ever one person that he, or anyone else for that matter, was better off not remembering, it was Katherine.

"Alright. Let's change the subject. Isn't this a little too big for you?" Damon asked with a small, lop-sided smile, catching the lapels of Elena's jacket and helping her wiggle her arms out of the sleeves.

"That's actually your jacket. And I've been sleeping in your shirts," Elena said, smiling back at him and laughing at the smug look that he gave her.

"Well, it's a relief to know this is not my usual style," Damon said, glancing at his hospital clothes. They exchanged joyful smiles and several light, lingering kisses. "So... how did we meet?" Damon asked, leaning a little backwards and gently maneuvering Elena to sit with her back to him, so he could gain the access to the buttons on the back of her dress.

"Well, it's a little-"

"Complicated to explain," Damon cut in, gathering Elena's hair in his hand and brushing them over one of her shoulders.

"Actually, it is," Elena said with a brief laugh. "Because we met for the first time... twice. At least from my perspective," she added with a humorous bite in her voice and then explained how compulsion worked and that he had compelled her to forget their very first meeting.

"Why would I do that?" Damon asked with an incredulous frown, proceeding to unbuttoning Elena's dress while she marveled inwardly once again on how well he was taking all the supernatural details of their lives.

She hadn't handled them that well when she had been first confronted with all those unthinkable truths. But perhaps the circumstances were less dire now. Or perhaps it was his feelings for her that were stronger than any abstract sense of confusion or anxiety.

If there was a way to return his memories to him she'd do that in a heartbeat, because she knew that he'd rather know the whole truth. That would be real. But how real was the truth that would just be a collection of stories told by people who weren't there at all or weren't there for him in his darkest moments? What was she going to give him? A list of events in chronological order? A list of people he killed? A list of facts? What facts? Deprived of context, deprived of emotions he didn't remember, what kind of facts were these? He'd just feel even more guilty, more sad about everything.

Damon's warm hands weighing heavily on her shoulders shook Elena out of her reverie, but when she opened her mouth to answer his question, he whispered some hushing words into her ear, and only then she heard that someone was apparently knocking on the door.

Elena turned around. "Jeremy has a key, but maybe it's just housekeeping," she said very quietly.

She tried to stand up, but Damon shook his head and silently asked her to stay while he'd go see who was at the door.

Elena rolled her eyes and then grabbed his hands and clutched them to her chest. "Just so you know, we committed a suicide together, so we're kind of past these kinds of arguments," she whispered, pressed her lips to his in a quick kiss and rose to her feet.

Blinking in wonderment at just how many more near-death experiences their biographies contained, Damon reluctantly agreed for Elena to accompany him to the door. They soundlessly made their way toward it and when Damon looked through the door viewer he frowned at the sight of an unfamiliar figure. It obviously wasn't Bonnie or Jeremy. The man didn't look like a hotel employee either. Damon didn't remember seeing him at the hospital, however it didn't mean that it wasn't where the man came from or that he wasn't just sent by someone from there to find them.

Elena tugged on Damon's sleeve, demanding access to the door viewer, but when the stranger put one of his hands in his pocket while using his other hand to knock on the door again, Damon noticed a gun tucked under the man's jacket and that was enough to quickly make him decide what to do without giving Elena a chance to see who was at the door.

Gently but decidedly pushing Elena away from the door, Damon opened it very suddenly in one, abrupt movement and without wasting a second, he punched the stranger in the face. The man dropped unconscious to the floor.

"I don't know if it's a good idea to stay in this room or even in this hotel," Damon said, already trying to decide what they should do next.

Elena leaped toward Damon and peered into the hallway, her eyes widening slightly at the sight, a look of apprehension on her face turning into a look Damon couldn't interpret right away.

"Your best friend would probably say that this was an impressive punch," Elena said in the most even tone she could muster. Damon looked at her, almost smiling at the comment, but then he was a little caught off guard by the expression that appeared on Elena's face. "If he was currently conscious and could talk," she added.

Damon stared at her for a second in bafflement and then shifted his eyes back to Alaric. "You mean..." Elena nodded, stifling a chuckle. Damon sighed. "Well, I hope he's not much for holding grudges," he said, bending over to pick Alaric up from the floor and carry him into the room. "And that he wasn't very attached to the shape of his nose."

Elena laughed under her breath. "Don't worry. He's a vampire. He'll be fine," she said reassuringly, closing the door behind them.

xxxdelenaxxx

"There must be a way out of here!" Caroline huffed in frustration pacing around the attic and examining every part of it.

"This room is under a spell, in case you missed that part," Marcel said flatly, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"She said she's controlling Mikael," Stefan muttered, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. Caroline gave him a slightly impatient, questioning look. "It means he isn't as invincible as he had been. He can't be, if a witch is controlling him."

"Well, yes, great, perhaps this time around he can be killed with a regular stake instead of a fancy one," Caroline said, slumping onto one of the chairs. "How is that of any help?"

"Mikael was asking us about a baby," Stefan asked, following several different trains of thought at once. "Do you know what he might've been talking about?"

Camille and Marcel exchanged grim looks.

"He wants to find Klaus' baby," Marcel said, raising his eyebrows in humorless amusement at the stunned expressions that appeared on Caroline's and Stefan's faces. "The witches want the baby dead. The baby is part-witch, but there's some prophecy that says it will bring destruction to all the witches."

"Wait. What do you mean 'Klaus' baby'?" Caroline asked with a mirthless snort, rising to her feet and giving Marcel a little questioning, but predominantly irritated look, as if she was suspecting him of wasting their time by making up some ludicrous stories.

"And Mikael cares about all the witches' well-being why, exactly?" Stefan asked doubtfully, prompting Marcel to ignore Caroline's question.

"What do you mean 'Klaus' baby'?" Caroline repeated, too baffled to get angry about her question being ignored and just changing the addressee of her question.

Camille opened her mouth to provide her with some kind of a reply, but Marcel cut her off, answering Stefan's question instead.

"He's struck some deal with Davina," Marcel said with a small shrug. "But... Davina wouldn't hurt a baby," he said with conviction, a deep frown appearing on his forehead. "I really don't know what exactly is going on. Klaus tried to pretend that the baby died, but somehow the witches found out the truth, that Rebekah took the baby to safety. But I don't think even Klaus knows where she went," Marcel added and Stefan's eyes narrowed at the mentioning of Rebekah's name.

"Rebekah," Caroline echoed, glancing at Stefan and making an effort to concentrate on the situation, even though her mind was still preoccupied with processing the news. She didn't think anything could trump Bonnie and Damon coming back to life, but apparently there was no shortage of shocking and impossible things that could happen.

Marcel shifted his eyes between Caroline and Stefan. "Do you know where Rebekah is?"

"No, we don't," Stefan muttered with a frown. "But if she was near where we live, as Mikael suggested, we might know whom she went to visit."

Caroline snorted bitterly. "That wouldn't be the cleverest thing to do."

"Why?" Camille asked with a worried frown, taking a few steps toward her.

"Well, let's just say the person in question isn't very... omnipotent," Stefan said with a small, sour smile. "He wouldn't be able to help her much."

"He's the most trustworthy person ever, but he's human," Caroline clarified, glancing at Camille who acknowledged the explanation with a nod. But then Caroline suddenly straightened up. "However," she continued after a pause, swirling around to face Stefan, her expression bright, "he's currently living in a very safe place where no vampires or witches can harm anyone."

Camille and Marcel exchanged questioning looks, but before they had a chance to ask for an explanation, the door opened and Davina walked inside, followed by Mikael - and Klaus who looked jaded and upset and Caroline frowned in grim amazement at seeing, for the first time ever, not a 1000 years flickering in his eyes, but 365 000 days edged into every feature of his face.

xxxdelenaxxx

Blinking his eyes open and seeing a blurry outline of a glass filled with amber liquid, Alaric's thoughts drifted from a vague sense of déjà vu to the realization that it was the first time in his vampire existence that he was feeling something that could be only described as a regular headache.

"I was going to offer you a long-winded heartfelt apology, but Elena said you'd find it suspicious," Damon said with a brief, strained smile, extending his hand with bourbon in it.

Alaric sat up, massaging his forehead, his eyes fixed on Damon as his vision was swiftly becoming clear again, the headache ebbing away. He took the glass from Damon's hand, but then almost immediately put it down on the table, rose to his feet and pulled Damon into a strong hug.

"It's good to see you," he said with a grimace that quickly turned into a smile.

"Thank you," Damon said, smiling at Elena who was watching the scene with a happy grin on her face.

There was a trace of something unfamiliar in all of this, Damon suddenly thought, although he couldn't quite place where this impression was coming from. He could, however, pinpoint what it was. It wasn't the love, warmth, kindness of others that felt unfamiliar. It was his reception of it. He felt completely comfortable with embracing all of it, accepting all of it, and it felt very new, rejuvenating.

"So why did you punch me? Were you expecting a paparazzi or something?" Alaric asked when the three of them sat down. "Oh, and by the way, you and Jeremy are grounded," he added, widening his eyes at Elena.

Elena smiled, but then her smile faded a little as she quickly filled Alaric in on everything that had happened since their arrival, including the lack of certainty that Bonnie and Jeremy made it out of the hospital unscathed.

"Do you think there's... an Augustine Society division in this hospital?" Alaric asked with a frown.

Elena shrugged. "We don't know, but there definitely is a connection. If Bonnie and Jeremy don't get here soon, we'll need to go back there and find them."

"What is this Augustine Society?" Damon asked, looking between Elena who was sitting next to him on the couch and Alaric whose expression became suddenly thoughtful and even sad.

"In short, it's a group of not always bad people doing very bad things to not always bad vampires," Alaric said with a grimace. "They captured you once in the 50s, kept you locked up for five years," he added, but then trailed off, noticing a barely perceptible shake of Elena's head, as if she was wordlessly asking him not to say anything more.

"In the 50s?" Damon repeated with a bemused snort and Elena was once again surprised by the aspect of the situation he was choosing to focus on. "So how old are we?" He asked conversationally, looking between Elena and Alaric.

"We are as old as we look," Alaric said with a small smile, glancing at Elena. "You, however, are 174 years old."

Damon blinked. "Well, it's good to know there is no inappropriate age difference between us," he said after a pause, giving Elena a lop-sided smile.

Elena laughed briefly under her breath.

"She laughs," Alaric said with a smile, although his eyes glimmered with gentle seriousness. "Haven't seen that in a long while," he added in a low voice and Elena drew a sharp intake of breath, looking up at Damon and giving him a reassuring smile when with a worried frown he draped his arm around her and pressed a kiss to the side to her face.

"Stefan and Caroline didn't come with you?" Elena asked in an effort to lighten up the mood, but the question didn't quite work to that effect.

"Yeah, about that," Alaric said with a sigh, searching the pockets for his phone. "We were supposed to meet at the airport, but they never showed up. I've been calling them since then, but with no luck so far. I asked Meredith to check on them and find out what happened."

Having found his phone, Alaric chose the number and brought the phone to his ear.

Damon inched his lips to Elena's ear and asked in a stage-whisper. "Who are Stefan and Caroline?"

Elena stifled a smile, scolding herself inwardly for not mentioning that earlier. "Stefan's your brother," she said, clasping Damon's hand in hers. "And Caroline's our friend."

"I have a brother," Damon acknowledged with a smile.

"They're still not picking up, neither of them," Alaric said, shaking his head at the phone. "I'll call Meredith-" he started, but stopped in mid-sentence when the phone began ringing in his hand. Alaric squinted at the unfamiliar number, but answered the call and after a moment his face brightened in surprise. "Jeremy, where are you?"

xxxdelenaxxx

"Thank you for coming, I really appreciate it," Matt said, letting Meredith inside the house and closing the door behind her. "It's just that I have no clue how to do all this," he added, shaking his head with a humorless laugh.

"Well, the mom must trust you tons if she left you on duty knowing that," Meredith observed with an amused smile.

Matt sighed. "I don't know about the mom, but the aunt apparently does," he allowed, leading Meredith up the stairs.

"Have you heard from Stefan or Caroline today?" Meredith asked, following him. "They don't pick up their phones and I just went to both of their apartments and they're not there. They were supposed meet with Ric at the airport, but-"

"Were they going somewhere?" Matt asked and Meredith stopped in her tracks.

"Oh my God, you don't know anything yet, do you?" She asked with a smile.

Matt looked at her in confusion, but before they had a chance to continue their conversation, the sound of baby crying claimed their attention. They quickly crossed the hallway and entered one of the rooms.

Meredith looked around the room in awe. It looked like a room straight out of a dream. It was beautifully furnished, lavishly decorated and fully stocked with all the imaginable clothes, toys, books and care products an infant could possibly need.

"And you said you needed _everything_!" Meredith exclaimed in amazement, turning toward Matt with a baffled look on her face, shifting her eyes from a joyously gurgling in her intricately sewn cradle baby girl to Matt.

But then Meredith's bafflement only grew when she noticed that Matt looked thoroughly shocked and was scanning the room with wide eyes in complete bewilderment.

She gave him a questioning look and after shaking his head a few times, Matt said in a low, astonished and even slightly terrified voice. "Three minutes ago there was _nothing_ here."

Meredith blinked. "I thought Mystic Falls was a magic-free zone now?" she said cautiously with a nervous smile.

"Yeah," Matt snorted mirthlessly. "Me too."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Thank you** so much **for your gorgeous reviews! :):):)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 8**

Six months of grief followed by the most stunning, exhilarating news must've taken its toll on a person - that's how Caroline hastily explained to herself the whirlwind of emotions triggered by Klaus' appearance. Her emotions were just all over the place anyway and a mixture of relief, worry, hope, anger, annoyance, joy and fear that washed over her was merely a proof of that.

She was so busy sorting out her feelings that only after a moment she realized that she was staring and quickly averted her eyes hoping that no one had noticed, because self-awareness concerning the matter was embarrassing enough.

"What is this?" Klaus asked in a low, impatient, menacing voice, glancing around the attic with wary eyes before shifting his gaze back to Mikael.

"That's my leverage," Mikael replied flippantly, regarding Klaus with cold, calculating eyes. "The location of the weapon in exchange for their lives."

Klaus narrowed his eyes at Mikael and snarled in a very believable amusement, Stefan would give him that. But before Klaus had a chance to respond to Mikael's ultimatum, Caroline cut in.

"You do know that by a weapon he means an infant, right?" she snapped, intuitively focusing on Davina whose mouth twitched at the inquiry.

Caroline had no idea what exactly was going on and the notion of _Klaus' baby_ was still making as much sense to her as atrigonometric equation would to a preschooler, but this wasn't going to stop her from trying to navigate her way through this mess just fine.

Klaus' eyes darted to her and she found the trace of hesitant curiosity in his eyes both amusing and in some odd way motivating.

"The baby is part-witch and a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone evil," Davina said in a resolute, steady voice.

"Like him?" Stefan inquired innocently, pointing to Mikael.

Caroline tilted her head to the side, arching an eyebrow at Davina who inhaled sharply.

"Davina, why are you helping him?" Marcel suddenly asked in a gentle, but demanding voice, stepping forward. "Whatever his reasons are, they're not what he told you they are," he said, holding Davina's gaze and Caroline shifted her eyes between them, wondering that maybe there was a chance for a breakthrough, because Marcel's words seemed to be having some effect on Davina even if it wasn't exactly showing just yet.

"In an effort to save us all some valuable time," Stefan broke in, attracting everyone's attention and Camille noticed a glimpse of slightly humorous uncertainty in Klaus' eyes when he turned his head to look at Stefan. "I'm not an expert," Stefan said, glancing at Camille, "but it seems to me that this projection mechanism that's at work here isn't going to lead us anywhere." Stefan gave Mikael a thin smile. "Because you seem to be acting on the false assumption that everyone is as horrible and failure of a parent as you," Stefan said in a perfectly even voice.

Klaus blinked, his eyebrows knitting together, but even if it was confusion at all, it lasted only for a second and Marcel squinted warily, noticing a ghost of a pensive smile flicker across Klaus' face.

Camille's eyes shifted to Caroline to deduce from her expression if Stefan risking angering Mikael was a deliberate move or something done on a not very well thought-out impulse. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite infer from Caroline's face which of these scenarios was the case.

"Every parent better than you," Stefan continued in exactly the same tone as before, "which is, like, every parent ever, would choose their child over a bunch of reluctant acquaintances," he concluded with a small sigh. "In other words, your plan is just moronic."

For a moment the room was completely silent, but then the silence was broken by Caroline half-successfully stifling a chuckle.

If Stefan's words merely annoyed Mikael, Caroline's reaction seemed to do the trick and finally make him angry... although Camille couldn't figure out for the life of her how making Mikael angry was going to help. She glanced at Marcel out of the corner of her eye, but he seemed to be sharing her bafflement, looking between Stefan and Caroline as if he was trying to decide if they were stupid or crazy.

"Do you think you're funny?" Mikael snarled derisively, slowly walking up to Stefan and stopping right in front of him.

Stefan smiled briefly, holding his gaze without blinking. "I wasn't trying to be funny," he said in a low voice that sent shivers up Caroline's spine, because she suddenly realized what was coming. "I was just trying to get a chance to see if you can be killed," Stefan added and then pounced on Mikael, drove his fangs into his neck and a split second later Mikael's head toppled off his body and dropped onto the ground with a thud.

Davina screamed. Camille's eyes widened in horror and she stumbled backwards and would've fallen to the floor if it wasn't for Marcel who caught her when she tripped.

Klaus blinked a few times before darting his eyes from Mikael's severed head to Stefan.

Caroline stared at Stefan, not as dismayed as she thought she ought to be.

"This falls under double jeopardy, right?" Stefan asked unenthusiastically, wiping the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand.

Klaus smirked. "I'd say it does, ri-"

Caroline groaned. "If you say the r-word I'm going to rip _your_ head off!" she exclaimed in irritation, sending a glare Klaus' way.

Klaus threw his hands up in the air in an apologetic gesture.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I should go get Jeremy and Ric should go get Bonnie. Or the other way around. Either way, I should've gone too," Elena continued arguing in an urgent tone even after Alaric had left and Damon escorted her into the bathroom. "Or we should all go together," she grudgingly allowed after a pause.

Damon closed the door behind them and turned to face her, giving Elena a humorously threatening smile and waggling his finger at her when she made a step forward as if she was planning on trying to get out of the bathroom.

Elena's worried frown changed into a faint smile. "Damon, I'm serious. I can't just be here, soaking in the bathtub while Jeremy's in jail and Bonnie's in that hospital!"

Damon leaned over the edge of the tub, turned off the water and then without a warning swept Elena into his arms and lowered her into the water-filled bathtub.

Elena yelped in surprise, but then snorted in exasperation, giving Damon a pretendedly upset look.

"First of all, Jeremy's in a detention cell, not in jail," Damon said, slumping into the floor near the tub. "As for Bonnie, she's been in that hospital for the last six months. She'll be fine. Ric will get Jeremy out and then they'll go get Bonnie. You're the one who's most at risk under the current circumstances, so you most definitely shouldn't have gone anywhere. I should've gone, but someone has to keep an eye on you. Not that I'm complaining," he added with a lop-sided smile, tucking a strand of hair behind Elena's ear.

She sighed. "I think you forgot to take off my clothes," Elena said, lifting her arms to illustrate the point, glancing at the water dripping off the soaked sleeves of her dress.

Damon narrowed his eyes at her. "I was being a gentleman," he said, smirking.

Stifling a chuckle, Elena quickly leaned over the rim of the tub and pressed a lingering kiss to his mouth.

Damon smiled. "You looked a little hesitant when Ric said that we're leaving as soon as they come back," Damon said, outlining Elena's face with his fingertips.

"You saw that?" She asked with a slightly surprised smile.

"_Some things could matter again."_

Damon blinked, a fleeting image of Elena saying the words to him in what looked like a homey kitchen passing through his mind.

"You think we should go back to the hospital and check if they're not keeping some people trapped in there," Damon said in a low voice, twirling a strand of Elena's hair around his finger and giving Elena a questioning look when she just gazed at him for a few moments in silence with an expression on her face he wasn't quite sure how to interpret. "I'm not reading you mind," he said with a small, humorously reassuring smile. "I just... think so too," he added with a frown.

"I know," Elena whispered, nuzzling the side of his face and pressing a few feathery-light kisses to his cheek. She couldn't say it, but she was just so happy that he was now free of all those self-imposed convictions that he had to be the one making harsh choices others didn't want to, didn't need to, wouldn't make. Now he didn't have to be the voice of morally ambiguous reason. Now he could just be himself, that version of himself he had repeatedly been going out of his way to conceal.

"We'll talk about it when they come back," Damon said, gathering some bubbles off the water surface and placing them on top of Elena's head. She chuckled. "For now just enjoy your bath before it gets cold," Damon said with s mile, brushing his lips against Elena's cheek and rising to his feet. "Should we order something to eat? What would you like?

"I have a couple of blood bags in my suitcase, so I'm fine," she said in a deliberately casual tone.

Damon widened his eyes at her. "That's right," he said with a smile, inwardly shaking his head at himself. "So you just drink blood, nothing else?" He inquired in that completely sensible voice that Elena wasn't sure it would ever cease to amaze her.

"I don't need anything else, but I can eat and drink everything else if I want to," she replied, recalling their conversation in Georgia and marveling at how unbelievably surprising life could be. It felt so strange, this role reversal of sorts. It wasn't as easy to handle as she had thought it was going to be, but at the same time there was something exhilarating about it. _"I would've saved you, in a heartbeat, no question."_ Elena drew a breath, remembering another conversation and thinking that perhaps that was it. Her chance to give him the life he deserved.

"Do you need a certain kind, type of blood?" Damon continued the inquiry, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest and trying to keep his eyes from straying from Elena's face to the thin fabric of her drenched dress clinging to her skin. He doubted she would've been outraged had he suggested joining her in the tub, but at the same time he thought it might've been rather crude to advance on her like that after being absent from her life for half a year.

As if to further his torment, Elena sat a little straighter in the tub. "No, it just has to be human blood. I mean, theoretically you can also drink animal blood, but it doesn't make you as strong and fast and you may not be able to do all the tricks like compulsion and that zooming thing we did," she explained smilingly, making a little splashes with her hand.

Damon smiled back, holding her gaze and slightly narrowing his eyes at her when he noticed a tiny bit of color rise to her cheeks.

"Human blood... from the bags?" He asked and Elena opened her mouth to answer, but then he sauntered toward her and knelt down next to the tub, his eyes never leaving her face.

She bit her lip, suppressing a smile. "Usually yes, but we can also drink from the vein. I'm not going to feed on you," she added hastily, watching Damon's hand reach out to prop her chin.

"Why not?" He asked, of course, and she thought she had a good answer, but then he kissed her and she forgot what she had wanted to say. "Does it hurt? Was I feeding on you when you were human? Was I hurting you?" He asked, each question making the frown on his forehead deepen.

Elena rolled her eyes. "No," she said, cradling his face in her hands, water dripping off her fingers onto his clothes. "Stop suspecting things like that. You've never hurt me in any way. Well, you force-fed me your blood once, but you did it to save my life," Elena said after a moment of consideration.

Damon drew back and they stared into each other's eyes for a longer while with bated breath until suddenly Damon rose to his feet, kicked off his shoes and stepped into the bathtub.

"That's adorable, but it's not gonna cut it," he said, holding Elena's gaze and then leaning forward and pulling her into an embrace, smiling when Elena laughed under her breath.

"I'm telling you the truth," she stated defiantly, sliding her hands over his shoulders and sending all of his worries that his behavior could be seen as brash into oblivion by pressing herself so close to him he could feel her breasts flatten against his chest.

"I don't doubt that," Damon whispered hoarsely, letting his fingers fumble with the rest of the buttons on the back of Elena's dress. "But there's more to it."

Elena huffed in exaggerated exasperation. "I love you, that's all there's to it," she said with a shrug, helping him take off her dress.

"You're not going to tell me, are you?" Damon asked, squinting.

"I am, but..." Elena shook her head in slight frustration, but then with a playful glimmer in her eyes she got hold of Damon's shirt and tugging it upwards, pulled it over his head. "I don't think we have very much time today, so you need to choose. We can either discuss your wrongdoings or make out," she said, slightly thrusting up her chin in a challenging expression, her eyes laughing.

Damon raised an eyebrow in a speculative grimace, as if he was weighing pros and cons.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him and then running one hand through his hair, her other hand anchored on his shoulder, she inched her lips to his ear and whispered, "I meant, make love."

When she turned her head to look at him, her lips were immediately captured in a passionate kiss, the taste of his lips so familiar that she felt hot tears burn her eyelids at the recurring realization that it was really happening that they had found each other, that he was back, that he was here.

His lips were firm and warm against hers. He kissed her feverishly, thoroughly, barely making it possible for them to breathe between the kisses. It was so gentle and yet so impatient, the way his hands rushed across her body, following, for the first time, the paths they had traveled so many times before.

"If there is something good about this memory loss is that all I know is you," Damon whispered suddenly, his lips co close they were still touching hers, his eyes ablaze. Elena's breath caught in her throat and she looked at him tenderly with wide eyes. "I've never loved anyone but you. I've never kissed anyone but you," he whispered, raising his hand to her face and grazing it with his fingertips. He looked at her with fierce reverence, enthralled, his eyes radiating with her favorite smile.

"_What's that face?"_

Elena tightened her embrace around him and smiled, blinking back the tears. "That's good," she said quietly, placing her hands on either side of his face and leaning her forehead against his.

She shivered when she felt his hands skim lightly over her skin, push the straps down her shoulders and unclasp her bra. Elena's eyes fluttered open and they looked at each other, lips trembling, their breathing ragged.

"If it's too early..." Damon whispered, cradling her to him carefully, gliding his hand over her arm and her neck, into her hair and looking at her adoringly, but with a trace of anxiety in his eyes, trying not to draw hastily selfish conclusions from the tremors running through her and the tears in her eyes. "Elena, if it's too soon just tell me-"

"Too soon?" She shook her head with a broken laugh, dipping her head to trail a few, light kisses across his chest. "It's six months too late," she whispered, looking up at him and smiling against his mouth when he crashed it against hers.

Hoisting her into his arms, Damon carried Elena out of the bathtub and they landed on the stark-white linens of the bed in a tangled, damp, sweltering mess, hands roaming shakily everywhere they could reach, impatient kisses mingling with slow, leisurely ones and they laughed breathlessly at their mutual, erratic indecisiveness whether they wanted to devour each other in senseless, intoxicating abandon or savor each moment, drag it out until it almost hurt to wait from one tender touch of the lips against the heated skin to the other.

"Was our first night like this?" Damon asked, smiling against Elena's skin, trailing kisses across her collarbones, sliding his hand under her back, snuggling her to him as close as possible.

"The night was mad and feverish," Elena replied a little dreamily, chuckling when Damon nuzzled her neck, tickling her. "But the morning was calm, tranquil... but also kind of mad, because I did some things I never thought I'd do," she blurted out.

Damon groaned and laughed, capturing her lips in a fervent kiss. "Now you're teasing me."

Elena tossed her head to the side, almost losing her breath when she tried to laugh with his lips plastered to her neck, his hands roaming freely, as if he was making a point of not missing even an inch of her skin. "I can show you," she offered, feeling inebriated from joy, like she had had during that summer when everything had seemed so perfect and bright and she suddenly felt a twinge of fear that just like back then, right now something would happen again and shatter everything.

Damon's eyes flew to her face in an instant and he looked at her with concern, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. "Elena?"

She covered his hand with hers and squeezed it tightly. "I was dead too," she whispered with a grimace, "these six months without you. I felt dead," she said, leaning into his touch and kissing him back when with a pained frown he pressed his lips to her.

He kept repeating her name in between the kisses, outlining the contour of her face with his lips, dragging them along her neck. "I love you," he whispered into her ear and drew back to look at her and for a few moments they remained almost motionless, eyes locked, smiles flitting across their faces.

"I love you too," Elena said softly, biting back a smile, reaching out to run her fingertips over his lips and cup his cheek in her hand, "but if we don't want to be walked in on, we need to hurry."

With an impish grin, Damon lowered his lips to hers and Elena laughed, lifting her head off the pillow and meeting his lips half-way.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Am I free to go?" Jeremy asked with a trace of suspicion and annoyance in his voice, exiting the cell that a police officer had opened, motioning for him to walk out of it.

"No. FBI is taking over your case," the officer said, squinting. "Apparently, you've committed something more than a misdemeanor, eh?"

Jeremy stared at him in bewilderment. "What? What kind of nonsense is that?" He exclaimed, not knowing if he should continue arguing or just laugh and see what would happen next. He wondered if Enzo had something to do with this.

They entered a small office at the end of the murky hallway, someone apparently waiting for them there.

"Agent Franklin," the police officer addressed a man who was standing by the desk. "Here he is."

"Look. I don't know what-" Jeremy started, shaking his head in irritation, but then stopped in mid-sentence at the sight of _Agent Franklin_ who had just turned around to face him, his hands in his pockets, a severe look on his face.

"Thank you, officer," Alaric said unsmilingly, giving the policeman a brief, approving nod. "Good work. I'll keep your name in mind."

"Thank you," the police officer said with a smile, straightening up. "We were just doing our job."

Jeremy blinked, but then quickly regained his composure for the sake of not ruining the act. "I didn't do anything!" He shouted.

"Of course you didn't," Alaric said, exchanging a knowing look with the police officer who snorted. "Let's go," he added, grasping Jeremy's arm and heading for the door.

"Agent Franklin?" Jeremy asked in a low voice once they were out in the street, getting into a car.

Alaric shot him a narrow-eyed look. "I was thinking about Agent Lugosi, but that might've been pushing it, what do you think?" He asked, stifling a smile.

Jeremy jumped into the passenger seat with a laugh.

xxxdelenaxxx

Bonnie was pacing around her hospital room, trying to decide what to do.

It was crazy to trust someone she knew for a day. A day! If only. Technically, she knew Jeremy for an hour. However, the dilemma whether she should trust such a person over trusting people she knew for... three months didn't seem too valid either, Bonnie acknowledged with an inward snort. Was there really much difference between an hour and three months? Probably not. Although she had to admit that one of the reasons why she was more inclined to trust Jeremy was that she felt drawn to him in a way that had nothing to do with common sense.

With a sigh, Bonnie slumped onto her bed. Maybe she should run away. Only she had no idea where to go. And what if someone came back to get her while she was gone? Then again, what if Amanda and Dr. August only pretended to care for her well-being? They might just be waiting for her to fall asleep to transport her somewhere far away or even kill her.

Bonnie hid her face in her hands with a stifled groan. Damon was right, they had been watching too many movies. She was getting way too paranoid, conjuring up some ridiculous conspiracy theories on her own. Why would anyone want to hurt her? Or why would anyone suspect such a nice, intriguing, handsome guy as Jeremy of anything bad? Right. Bonnie sighed, inwardly rolling her eyes at herself. Impeccable logic. Handsome guys were never evil, obviously.

Storming to her feet in frustration, Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the wall and looking out of the window. Paradoxically perhaps, what preoccupied her least was what had happened in the cafeteria, water burning Elena's face – and then Elena's skin healing all by itself. What did Amanda mean by saying that Elena was a monster?

Bonnie shuddered when the door to her room was pushed opened and she frowned at the sight of a doctor she hadn't seen before...

"Hello, it's been too long," the man said with a smirk and then it suddenly dawned on Bonnie that she _had_ seen him before, but in a different uniform. "I'll help you get out of here and you'll help me with something too. How does that sound for a plan?"

"Who are you?" Bonnie asked with a distrustful frown, looking him up and down with wary eyes. "Do I know you?" She asked, something in the man's demeanor striking her as ominous.

Enzo tilted his head from side to side. "Fleetingly," he said at last with a wink and then to Bonnie's dismay and astonishment, he moved toward her on an inhuman speed and pressed a cloth against her mouth, rendering her unconscious within seconds.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Thank you SO MUCH for all the amazing reviews! *hugs*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 9**

Jeremy fidgeted impatiently in the passenger seat, looking out of the window and hoping to see Alaric and Bonnie head toward the car any second. He glanced at his watch, acknowledging with growing anxiety that it was already an hour since Alaric had left and Jeremy wasn't sure for how much longer he'd be able to just sit in the car and wait. If this hospital was another enclave for experiments on vampires, Alaric was also in danger and who new how determined and capable of dealing with vampires those people here were.

Jeremy's train of thought was interrupted when a familiar silhouette, unfortunately just one, emerged from between the trees.

"Where's Bonnie?" Jeremy asked with a worried frown, jumping out of the car.

"I couldn't find her," Alaric said with a grimace, glancing over his shoulder and motioning for Jeremy to get back into the car. "I checked everywhere I could on my own, then I went to the director, introduced myself as a private investigator hired by Bonnie's mother and..." Alaric drew a breath and Jeremy braced himself for hearing something he wasn't going to like. "It looks like Bonnie's missing. They claim they don't know where she is."

"They're lying! They hid her somewhere!" Jeremy exclaimed, shaking his head in frustration.

"Maybe. Maybe not," Alaric said with a sigh. "I didn't come across anything suspicious, hidden doors or secret passages, but of course it doesn't mean there aren't any. They seemed to have searched the entire place and that Dr. August looked genuinely upset. They checked the surveillance recordings and they showed someone walking into Bonnie's room while she was in there about three hours ago, but the person never left. Not through the door, at least. So they think Bonnie's been kidnapped. But then again you're right. It might all just be a ruse."

"Kidnapped?" Jeremy blinked, perplexed. "By whom? They must've done something-" he stopped abruptly in mid-sentence. "What if it was Enzo?"

"Enzo?" Alaric widened his eyes at Jeremy. "Why? Is he here?"

"Yes, he was one of the policemen who arrested me," Jeremy said with a pensive frown. "He told me he was tracking the Augustine Society and that he was here 'investigating' the matter. He said he'd make sure Damon and Elena escaped and that he'd help us get Bonnie out tomorrow."

"Lots of volunteer work for a guy who threatened Bonnie and almost choked you to death with a plastic bag," Alaric said wryly.

Jeremy huffed in frustration. "I know. I don't trust him either, but..."

"Let's go back to the hotel so we can decide together what to do next," Alaric said and Jeremy nodded, glancing at the hospital building with a grim frown.

xxxdelenaxxx

"You're all monsters!" Davina seethed with tears in her eyes.

Undoubtedly about to raise her hands and unleash something violent and painful upon them, Stefan thought, not quite sure how he was supposed to counter her arguments after ripping someone's head off in front of her.

"Davina, please, listen to us," Marcel pleaded urgently, drawing Davina's attention to him. "Talk to us," he said, glancing at Camille who nodded quickly. "Talk to me."

"The only monster here was him!" Caroline said, gesturing to Mikael's body on the floor and ignoring Klaus slightly arching his eyebrows at her. "I don't know if you know, but none of us would've ever become a vampire if it wasn't for him. He murdered his own children and turned them into vampires. First vampires in history. Seeing how it's a school day and you're here, you're obviously skipping regular education, but if you're messing with magic, perhaps you should at least get CliffsNotes on the supernatural history," Caroline said, fuming.

"Maybe I don't know everything, but you know what I do know? That he killed my friend!" Davina said contemptuously, glaring at Klaus. "And countless other people!" She added vehemently, and Caroline looked to Stefan, hoping for him to come up with some good arguments, but then Klaus cut in, his tone clipped and Caroline was struck by the all too familiar hint of detached determination in his voice.

"Well, then, I'm afraid my reputation in your eyes is beyond repair," Klaus said, without a smirk or a shrug, despite a sardonic tone of his voice.

Stefan opened his mouth to speak, prompted by a similar observation Caroline had made, but it was Caroline who blurred right between Klaus and Davina just in time, when after tearing his wrist open, Klaus pounced toward Davina with an easily discernible intention of force-feeding her his blood and snapping her neck.

"No!" Marcel shouted, springing toward them, Camille following him as fast as she could.

Davina stared at Caroline's back, caught off guard by the turn of events, only after a second drawing a hasty breath and realizing what had almost happened.

Klaus tilted his head to the side, giving Caroline a thoroughly exasperated look and Caroline did her best to hold his gaze, even if the situation was becoming awkward and uncomfortable very fast, both of them noticing how close they were standing and not being really prepared for that mere months after swearing not to ever meet again.

Well, Caroline scoffed inwardly, technically he had promised not to ever come to Mystic Falls again, so it's not like she could accuse him of breaking any promises, not even in part.

"If you kill her she'll lose her powers and she won't be able to teleport us to New Mexico!" Caroline said in a low voice and Camille blinked, slightly taken aback by Caroline's choice of explanation of her actions. "And we need to get to New Mexico _that_ fast," Caroline said with a huff, snapping her fingers for effect.

"Why? What's in New Mexico?" Klaus asked, sincerely curious.

"You wanted to kill her, turn her into a vampire!?" Marcel broke in, charging on Klaus with anger burning in his eyes.

""Hey, hey, but he didn't," Stefan observed in a reconciliatory tone, zooming in between Klaus and Marcel and stopping the latter with a hand on his shoulder, which Marcel promptly shoved away. "Let's not waste time dwelling over 'what ifs'."

Marcel snarled. "Are you one of his sired hybrids or something?" He asked, looking between Stefan and Caroline.

"We're just ordinary vampires, thank you very much," Caroline snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, then you're his actual friends," Marcel said with a derisive grimace. "Even better. Congratulations."

Caroline was about to protest in agitation, but Stefan cut her off.

"Alright, I don't think we'll make much progress by throwing insults on each other, so perhaps we can turn this into a more civilized conversation?" Stefan proposed, glancing at Caroline who rolled her eyes. "Could you please lift the spell and let us out of here?" Stefan asked with a small, genuinely polite smile, addressing Davina who gave him an incredulous look.

"I don't think it's fair to keep them trapped here," Camille suddenly said and Davina's eyes flew to her. "They don't have anything to do with any of this."

"They're hiding the baby," Davina said with a frown.

"We aren't hiding anyone!" Caroline exclaimed, swirling around on her heels to face Davina. "We haven't seen Rebekah since the day when- when-" Caroline stammered, her breath catching in her throat at the sudden realization just which day exactly it was that they had seen Rebekah last. She was just glad she was standing with her back to Klaus, so he couldn't see her flushed face.

"Since the day when we saw her last," Stefan said in a casual tone, coming to Caroline's aid. "Which was a few months ago," he added, shifting his eyes to Klaus who actually looked rather perturbed by this piece of information.

"Well, perhaps that's for the best," Klaus said, clasping his hands behind his back, his eyes wandering around the attic for a second before he looked back at Stefan, forcing a sour smile on his face. "I can't imagine why she'd think Mystic Falls was the safest hiding place anyway."

"Well, Rebekah can't be in Mystic Falls regardless of what she thinks of it," Caroline said, turning away from Davina and back toward Klaus. "We're kind of locked out of Mystic Falls at the moment. No undead people allowed," she said with a bitter snort and a sigh. Klaus gave her a questioning look. "We had a bit of a Travelers problem, if that tells you anything. We got rid of the Travelers, but they left behind a spell that unfortunately didn't wear off when they died. And now Mystic Falls is a magic-free zone. Any undead person who crosses the town line reverts back to their human form, which in our case is _dead_ form."

Klaus seemed to be listening to Caroline very intently, his eyes narrowing in thought. "Travelers you say," he said without any specific tone to his voice, although Stefan was rather certain he saw some undoubtedly ill-boding glimpse of mischief in Klaus' eyes.

"Bonnie and Damon are in New Mexico," Caroline continued and Stefan's gaze shifted to her. He didn't think it was a good idea to reveal too much about what was currently going on in their lives, but Caroline didn't seem too concerned with such precautions as she delivered, nearly in one breath, a comprehensive summary of what had happened. "So," she said, drawing a breath, "we _really_ need to get to them as fast as possible and in the meantime maybe we can contact Matt and see if he knows anything about Rebekah and if he does, we'll text you," Caroline concluded with a strained smile, considering the situation solved... or at least hoping that promising to call Matt would be enough to get her and Stefan out of New Orleans and keep them from getting involved in Klaus' affairs.

A part of her wanted to find out what was going on here, but the more rational part of her was in favor of leaving as soon as possible without any explanation concerning the baby. Oddly, she was torn between _demanding_ an explanation and not wishing to hear it at all. But it wasn't the baby that bothered her. That was merely perplexing. What bothered her was the baby's mother, as ridiculous as it was, considering that she couldn't care less about all the matters pertaining to Klaus. Caroline gritted her teeth, wincing inwardly. She really needed someone to just yell at her right now, but Stefan never yelled, Elena was going to be too happy to yell and Bonnie wasn't going to remember she would've yelled. Maybe she could get Damon to yell at her.

"Davina, let them go. They need to go see their family," Camille pleaded, taking Davina's hand in hers. "I'm sure we can figure this all out. That prophecy and all. You know it's wrong, what the witches want to do. Some prophecy is no excuse for murdering anyone. There must be another way. Maybe we can find some answers, some solution to all of this in my uncle's archives. You're not this kind of person. You don't want to hurt anyone."

Davina averted her eyes from Camille, but didn't snatch her hand free and for a moment just stood motionlessly, looking somberly into the distance.

"Davina," Marcel said quietly, taking another step toward her and Davina's eyes shifted between him and Camille before she sighed under her breath and raised her hand, almost imperceptibly flicking her wrist, the gesture causing the air to ripple briefly, as if a transparent curtain suddenly dropped to the floor.

"You're free to leave," Davina said, glancing around the attic at everyone with a half-resigned, half-irritated expression. "I can teleport you to... wherever it is that you need to go," she muttered, glancing at Caroline and Stefan who exchanged relieved looks and then looking up to Camille who squeezed her hand in a reassuring gesture.

"Thank you," Caroline said sincerely, looking between Davina and Camille. "Let's go," she added hastily, shooting Stefan a hurrying look over her shoulder.

"Send Bonnie and Damon my regards," Klaus said conversationally, glancing at Stefan when he walked past him.

Stefan's mouth twitched into a mirthless smile. "Yeah, well, don't take it personally, but we're not even going to tell them that you exist."

Klaus smirked and Stefan turned around and made to follow Caroline, even though the self-congratulatory glint in Klaus' eyes made him certain they weren't going to just walk out of here and then limit their interactions in the nearest future to texting. And he didn't need to wait long to be proved correct.

"Oh, about that problem with Mystic Falls, being locked out of your homes and all..." Klaus said noncommittally, stopping Stefan and Caroline in their tracks.

They stopped walking, but didn't turn around and Stefan could see out of the corner of his eye Caroline squeeze her eyes shut.

"Perhaps I could help with that," Klaus said matter-of-factly, only the light in his eyes betraying a little amusement.

Caroline's hands curled up into fists at her sides. "I knew he was going to say that," she whispered through her teeth.

Stefan sighed. "Me too."

xxxdelenaxxx

"We should start getting dressed," Elena muttered, nestling her head into Damon's neck, which was about as much movement as she could afford with Damon's arms clasped firmly around her, keeping her in a tight, warm embrace. She draped her leg over his and snuggled against him a little more.

"Uh-huh," Damon agreed with a small smirk, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before resting his cheek on top of Elena's head. He traced the length of her arm with his fingertips and then took her hand in his, fiddling with it for a few moments, sliding his fingers in and out between hers.

"Did we have a wedding date set?" He suddenly asked.

Elena propped her chin on his shoulder and looked up at him with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. "A wedding date?"

"We're engaged, right?" Damon asked, tapping the ring on Elena's finger and then pointing to his ring. He wondered if men wearing engagement rings was a vampire thing, but either way, their rings had same-looking stones and it was the first thought that had sprung to his mind when he had noticed that.

"Actually, these are our daylight rings," Elena explained, biting her lip. "If we didn't have them, we'd burn in the sun," she said and Damon widened his eyes at her. She smiled. "Well, I would-"

"About that," Damon cut her off, bringing their intertwined hands to his lips and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "So... I need to drink vampire blood, die, wake up and then drink human blood to complete the transition," he recounted the information she had reluctantly given to him earlier and for the first time it occurred to Elena that perhaps his no-nonsense tone wasn't only driven by his feelings for her and his understanding personality, but also by not really grasping all the aspects and consequences of being a vampire.

His knowledge of vampires right now was limited to knowing her and seeing her in quite ordinary circumstances. So far the most repulsive thing that he had witnessed was the vervain accident. He had drunk a little bit of her blood, but that accompanied by the fact that it was meant to heal him and that he loved her couldn't count as anything substantial in terms of getting a clear idea of what he was getting himself into if he decided to turn. As for the rest, it was mostly her words describing things like compulsion that obviously didn't qualify as something that could deter anyone from becoming a vampire.

Elena drew a breath tucking her hair behind her ears. "I think you should think this over yet. There are many things..." she trailed off with a frown. "Being a vampire is not such a great thing. We don't just crave blood. We have to fight an instinct to kill. All the emotions are heightened. Not only the good ones-" She trailed off when he tipped her head upward and kissed her softly on the lips.

"Are you trying to say you'd rather not have me bother you for all eternity?" Damon asked with a smile.

Elena cupped his cheek with her hand. "No, I'm trying to say that being a vampire can be really... tough. I'd like nothing more than to be with you for all eternity, but I don't want to, I can't just selfishly encourage you to turn. You wouldn't do that to me."

"You said I force-fed you my blood," Damon pointed out, grazing the side of her face with the backs of his fingers.

Elena sighed. "That was different. You were trying to make sure that I wouldn't die," she said, lowering her head and pressing her cheek against his chest.

"Alright, but tell me this," Damon continued, undeterred, sifting her hair through his fingers. "If you'd asked me to turn you, told me you were completely sure that was what you wanted, would I've turned your request down?"

Elena slowly inhaled. "I can't be the one to turn you anyway, because if I did, you'd be sired to me," she said, trying to change the focus of the conversation a little. "I was sired to you when I turned. We didn't know it at first, it just came up later and the solution to that turned out to be pretty drastic. We broke the sire bond, but... I'd rather not relive how we did that."

"A sire bond?" Damon asked, trying to guess what it meant.

"It's what happens when you're turned by someone you love," Elena said quietly, drawing abstract shapes on Damon's chest with her fingertips. "You'd have to do everything I told you to do."

"Sounds terrifying," Damon snickered.

Elena snorted soundlessly. "It wasn't as funny as it sounds."

"You mean I made you commit some nefarious acts?" Damon asked with an uncertain smile.

"No," Elena said with a laugh, lifting her head and pressing a kiss to his chin. "But we kept agreeing on everything and it was boring," she said dismissively, not sure how to explain without triggering some potentially disconcerting questions why the sire bond was so awful even if it wasn't actually awful.

"So I can't drink your blood to turn. Got it. Can I drink my best friend's blood?" Damon steered the conversation back to the point and Elena sighed and sat up, giving him a pretendedly exasperated look.

"Can't you give yourself a couple of weeks to think about all that?"

Damon reached out, unceremoniously tearing away the bed cover she was holding to her chest. Elena smiled, letting him pull her into his arms and giggling under her breath when he rolled them over and pinned her hands on either side of her head, smirking down on her.

"Elena, Elena," he said in a playfully scolding voice. "You want me to make an informed decision, but you're only telling me half of the story. The pretty half. So how do you think this is going to work?" He leaned down and Elena's eyes fluttered shut when he trailed open-mouthed kisses across her collarbones.

"I don't know," she admitted honestly with a faint smile, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close.

A knock on the door startled them both and they exchanged humorously alarmed looks.

"I told you we should've gotten dressed," Elena whispered, trying to wiggle her way out from under Damon, but he was deliberately making it difficult for her.

"And I said 'uh-huh'," Damon said defensively and Elena grinned, grabbed his face and kissed him fiercely on the mouth before scurrying off the bed and zooming to the door to check who it was.

"It's Stefan and Caroline!" Elena announced, zooming back into the room. She pulled Damon's shirt out of her carry-on luggage and threw it at him. "Alaric said he brought you some clothes," she said, blurring toward Alaric's suitcase and quickly locating Damon's clothes.

Damon slid of the bed and to Elena's dismay, instead of helping, grappled her from behind, turned her in his arms and kissed her.

"Damon!..." Elena pushed him away, stifling a laugh. "They're vampires, not ghosts. We need to go open the door. Put some clothes on," she chided him with a smile, pressing three hurried kisses to his lips before leaping to the side and strapping her bra on as quickly as she could.

Without averting his eyes from Elena, Damon promptly got dressed and then silently signaled to her that he was going to go open the door. Elena opened her mouth to protest, but then stopped herself and just nodded with a smile and decided to take this additional moment she got to brush her hair.

On his way toward the door Damon slightly rolled up his sleeves and made a mental note to ask Elena if he was wearing any other clothes than black, because everything Alaric had brought was of that color.

Taking a deep breath and biting back a smile, Damon pulled the door open.

"Oh my God," Caroline gasped out, her hands flying to her cheeks. She stared at Damon with wide eyes for a few seconds and then launched herself toward him and gave him a hug.

But before Damon had the time to smile at having met another dear friend, Caroline abruptly pulled away.

"Now I can hate you again!" she exclaimed, beaming and for a moment Damon wondered if he had heard her correctly, because her words didn't seem to match a genuinely happy grin on her face. "Where is Bonnie?" Caroline asked, drawing a hasty breath and almost shoving Damon to the side on her way into the room. "Bonnie!"

Damon blinked rapidly, a little confused, but then his attention was drawn to the other person who was still standing by the door.

Stefan looked at him, apparently trying to smile or say something or both, but failing.

"You must be my brother," Damon said, pointing a finger at him, a trace of humor in his voice.

Stefan grimaced and laughed brokenly and then just took a step forward and pulled Damon into an embrace that seemed to last for really, really long and when Stefan drew back, he looked so distressed and still unable to speak, that Damon decided he needed to say something to lighten the mood.

"I don't think your girlfriend likes me very much," Damon said with a small smile, wondering if perhaps Caroline was a good person to ask about his 'wrongdoings'.

Stefan gave out a weak chuckle, trying to regain his composure. "Yes, I think I finally found one that doesn't," he blurted out what had seemed like a good joke... for about a split second between him saying the words out loud and a confused look making its way back onto Damon's face.

xxxdelenaxxx

She really should've known better when she was wishing for an interesting life back when her world was limited to hospital hallways.

With a stifled groan caused by a lingering headache, Bonnie sat up and looked around a rather large, desolate space complete with tall, empty window frames that made her think of abandoned factories in thrillers-

She stopped herself, deciding that she must quit coming up with all these nonsensical associations. It was her life, real life, not some horror movie and she should stick to logic and facts.

"Ah, you're awake."

Bonnie jumped to her feet, her eyes darting to Enzo who was sitting by a nearby table that looked a little bizarre in such a place.

"I hope you _still_ like hazelnut-caramel mocha," Enzo said, shifting in his chair and propping one of his legs on his knee. He held Bonnie's bewildered gaze for a moment, before he gestured to a steaming coffee cup on the table, a small smirk playing about his lips.

The smirk seemed to ignite the irritation that quickly overpowered any traces of fear and confusion.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want from me?" Bonnie asked, glaring at him.

Enzo sighed and took a sip of his coffee. "Why don't you sit down?" He said, pointing to the empty chair at the table.

"I don't want to sit down!" Bonnie snapped. "I want you to tell me-"

"Yes, yes, who I am and what I want," Enzo cut her off in a bored tone, still smirking. "But it's actually who you are that's more important at the moment."

Bonnie frowned. "Did you kidnap me for ransom or something?" She asked, suddenly remembering that Jeremy had mentioned that her late father had been a mayor. It was hard to randomly establish any immediate connection, but perhaps-

Bonnie's train of thought was interrupted by Enzo's amused snort.

"I didn't kidnap you," he said, tilting his head to the side. "There's just something we need to do. A secret task we need to complete," he added cryptically, holding her gaze, trying to read from her expression the effect his words were having on her.

He hadn't initially planned on doing it that way, intending to just present her with a request instead. But then he realized that a different approach could be more effective, one that would make his plan look like her responsibility.

"We? A secret task?" Bonnie asked with a grimace, beginning to suspect the man was just some kind of a lunatic and engaging with any kind of conversation with him made no sense.

"You are a witch," Enzo said offhandedly. "We made a pretty good team before..." he waved his hand in a nonchalant manner, "all of that happened."

"A witch?" Bonnie echoed. She shook her head in sincere amusement, trying to ignore the tremor that ran through her not because what he had said was ridiculous, but because she couldn't bring herself to _feeling_ that what he had said was ridiculous.

"Twenty three places," Enzo continued, ignoring the interruption, his expression suddenly becoming more serious as he produced a map out of his pocket and swiftly spread it over the table. "Twenty three buildings in addition to the people on this list," he said, placing a few folded pages of paper on the map. "They all must disappear."

"What people? What places? What team? What are you talking about?" Bonnie asked with growing impatience, taking a few brisk steps toward the table in order to show that she wasn't going to let him intimidate her with some weird and vague pieces of information that made her think of bad movies about contract killers.

"We, meaning you, me and Damon must finish what we've started," Enzo said in a low voice and Bonnie blinked at the mentioning of Damon's name, feeling even more confused now, wondering how all of it, how all of them fit into this one crazy story that was now apparently taking a criminal turn, as if making some ludicrous comments about her being a witch wasn't enough.

Enzo inhaled slowly and glanced at the world map covered with about two dozens of red marks, his expression determined and resigned, as if he was merely setting to do what simply had to be done.

"We'll end the Augustine Society once and for all, Bonnie," Enzo said in a gritty whisper, his smile sending icy-cold shivers up Bonnie's spine. "We'll send it up in flames."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Thank you** so so so much** for your beautiful reviews! :]:]:]

Just a heads-up: due to RL stuff, updates may be a little slower from now on, but hopefully no less frequent than once a week ;)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 10**

"If we got here on time, none of it would've happened," Caroline said with a distressed huff, pacing around the room. Stefan nodded thoughtfully. "We would've gone to that hospital together and they wouldn't have been able to-"

"What are you doing?" Elena asked with an incredulous frown, storming back into the room after closing the door behind Damon whom she had randomly (and only now Caroline realized how randomly and that it was indeed a little weird) asked to bring her a chocolate bar from the candy vending machine in the hallway.

Caroline blinked in bafflement, because for the half an hour since her and Stefan's arrival during which the four of them had been talking, Elena hadn't looked angry or irritated and the atmosphere seemed rather pleasant, only a little understandably awkward due to the whole memory loss situation and as happy as it could be considering that they were all worried about Bonnie and anxious for Jeremy and Alaric to return...

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked, wrinkling her forehead and glancing at Stefan to see if he had any idea what Elena was talking about.

To her surprise, he seemed to have an idea, because he winced. "I'm sorry, Elena," he said with an apologetic grimace, "it was dumb, I know, I didn't mean to-"

"OK. What is going on?" Caroline cut Stefan off in mid-sentence, still not understanding the reason for Elena's sudden change of mood.

Elena brushed her hair behind her ears with a humorless snort and crossed her arms over her chest. "Really, Caroline? He died, he was in a coma for three months, woke up with no memories and spent three months wondering who he was and if anyone was looking for him, and the first thing you say to him is that you hate him?" Elena's face contorted in a disbelieving grimace.

Caroline blinked, finally beginning to see what it was all about. "Oh my goodness, Elena!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air with a nervous laugh. "Are you serious?! I didn't say that I hate him. I said- Whatever I said- It was a joke! What Stefan said was a joke too!"

"A joke?" Elena widened her eyes at her. "If you say something that no one except you finds funny I'm pretty sure it doesn't qualify as a joke," she said brusquely. "Now he'll be thinking about what you said, wondering why you said that and what it was that he'd done in the past that made you say it-"

"Elena!" Caroline interrupted her with an incredulous huff. "Don't you think you're overreacting? A little? Or actually more than a little? Like... a _lot_ more than a little?"

"Elena's right," Stefan said with a sigh, giving Caroline a mollifying look. "We should be more considerate of what we say to Damon and Bonnie right now."

"You mean we should lie to them?" Caroline asked, stifling an urge to roll her eyes.

"No, Caroline, not lie, just be a little nicer than you usually are," Elena blurted out and Caroline gawked at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I'm not in a heavenly mood," Caroline retorted in annoyance. "I wonder in what kind of mood you would've been in after spending a day re-killing Mikael, negotiating with an underage angry witch and striking stupid deals with Klaus instead of... whatever it was that you were doing today," Caroline concluded, shooting a meaningful look at the disarranged bed.

Elena stared at Caroline, rendered speechless for a few moments.

"I really don't think we want to be arguing right now," Stefan observed in a reconciliatory tone, but neither Elena nor Caroline seemed to be paying any attention to him.

"I'm sorry if you had a stressful day, but hopefully it wasn't too exhaustive after six months of doing nothing," Elena said wryly.

Caroline gasped, a sour grimace flitting across her face. "Of course. I was waiting for that. So now we're evil just because we weren't acting like desperate lunatics along with you and Jeremy for all this time?"

Elena was about to retort, but then Damon walked back into the room.

"Ha, I knew it," he said with a hint of amusement in his voice, narrowing his eyes at everyone. "Let's send the kid outside so we can argue in peace. What's going on?" He asked, walking up to Elena and handing her the chocolate bar she had asked for, a lop-sided smile flickering across his lips.

Elena gave him a small smile in return, but he frowned noticing the nervous tension and concern glimmering in her eyes.

"Nothing," Caroline said sardonically. "We've just been ambushed by the Damon's Peace of Mind Police," she said, widening her eyes at Elena who didn't seem amused in the slightest by Caroline's ongoing tirade.

Damon stifled a smile and Stefan froze, caught off guard by the sudden impression that it was almost two hundred years since he had seen that kind of smile on Damon's face, a completely happy, involuntary, wariness-free smile.

"Yes, I've met these guys," Damon said, draping his arm around Elena for a second and pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. "Very stubborn," he said with a faint smirk, his eyes wandering around Elena's face with worshiping intensity that almost prompted Caroline to either clarify if they had really met a few hours ago or suggest that the memory loss was just a hoax, both inquiries probably being a bad idea seeing how Elena's sense of humor was apparently MIA.

"I'm sorry, OK? I didn't mean to be nasty or anything," Caroline said, looking at Elena and holding her gaze until her expression softened a little. "I was just making a humorous allusion to the fact that we used to fight a lot," she said, shifting her gaze to Damon and enunciating every word in an exaggerated matter as if she was making a momentous announcement. "No big deal, right? As for what Stefan said," Caroline continued before Elena had a chance to appreciate the apology, "a long time ago you and Stefan were dating Katherine who was stringing you both along. And Stefan and Elena had been dating before you swooped in and spirited her away. Are we happily in the clear about everything now? Or did I just ruin your inner nirvana?" Caroline asked rhetorically and rolled her eyes, apparently considering the whole problem solved.

Damon's mouth twitched. "No," he said after a pause, glancing between Elena and Stefan who were staring at Caroline in stunned silence and despite all these revelations being essentially uncool, he couldn't help finding their expressions a tad bit hilarious. "But I think you might've ruined theirs."

xxxdelenaxxx

"You're crazy," Bonnie said, not sure why she even felt compelled to be stating the obvious, but somehow she wasn't able to stop herself.

It was getting dark and for some reason the fragmentary, flickering lights hanging crookedly under the ceiling were making Bonnie feel uneasy. She wondered if they were reminding her of something, or perhaps it was this half-demolished building, chipped walls that reminded her of something, the wind flowing through the row of broken windows making her think of leaves dancing around her in the air...

Enzo merely smirked at her. "I know it's a lot to take in."

Bonnie laughed humorlessly, springing to her feet and giving him an incredulous look. "You don't _actually_ expect me to believe that I'm a _witch_ who is also a part of some vampire squad fighting anti-vampire organizations," Bonnie said with a grimace. "But if you're testing some story ideas on me, I'd say, give it a shot. I'll read it."

Enzo slowly rose to his feet, his eyes still bright with amusement, but focused and calm in a way that Bonnie found endlessly unsettling.

"I know deep down you know it's true," Enzo said in a low voice, holding her gaze and Bonnie clenched her jaw, refusing to let it show in her expression that she did feel that what he was saying wasn't entirely false. But if she really was to trust her instincts, his words didn't feel entirely true either. "I can show you I'm a vampire, that's easy enough to prove," Enzo said and then to Bonnie's horrified bewilderment, a net of veins appeared under his suddenly bloodied eyes and he sank his fangs into the palm of his hand, tearing it open.

Bonnie stared at the blood oozing from the wound, but only for a second, before the wound began to heal all by itself almost immediately... just like Elena's face in the cafeteria, Bonnie suddenly thought and tensed at the realization.

"They started putting vervain in the water," Enzo said, as if reading her thoughts. "Vervain is toxic to vampires but if you digest or carry it with you as a human it makes you immune to compulsion, to mind-control and it also renders your blood rather... unappetizing." He smirked.

Bonnie stared at him with a grimace, desperately fighting a strange inclination to believe him. Inexplicably, she felt that if she believed him, something awful would happen. It was a bizarre conviction, but so nagging that she couldn't ignore it. When she was repeating his words to herself, when she was trying out thinking about herself as a- as a... witch, all she could feel was pain. She couldn't associate it with anything specific, her memory was still a book with no title and mostly blank pages. But this pain was enough to make her certain that she was better off blocking it all out.

"What do you say, should we call Elena?" Enzo asked, shaking Bonnie out of her reverie and giving her a mildly sardonic look over the phone he was holding in his hand. "Someone's got to start working on finding a way of making your magic grace us with its presence again," Enzo added when it didn't seem that Bonnie was going to say anything.

"You don't understand," Bonnie said slowly, making sure to pronounce each word very clearly. "I _don't_ _want_ to be a witch."

Enzo looked at her, for a split second entertaining the thought that she remembered more than she was letting on, but then he noticed that she was almost surprised by her own words. She averted her eyes from him, absently scanning the empty surroundings as if she was trying to guess where the thought behind her words had come from.

"Oh, but you _are_ a witch," Enzo said, tilting his head to the side and Bonnie's eyes darted to him. "So it's not really a matter of choice."

"The past is not a matter of choice, because it already happened," Bonnie said in a low, but firm voice, a glimpse of defiance flashing in her eyes. "But the future is. And even if I was a witch, right now I'm not and I'm telling you I don't want to be."

"Freedom of choice is a beautiful thing," Enzo said with a weak, crooked smile, looking back at his phone and dialing the hotel's number. "Unfortunately, unless we turn off our emotions, we're never free," he said, bringing the phone to his ear while holding Bonnie's wary gaze.

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon really didn't seem to mind Caroline's outburst, but when in response to it Elena hastily turned on her heels and headed for the door with tears in her eyes, Damon gave Caroline what could probably be considered a mild glare before he made to follow Elena.

"What did I do now?" Caroline asked, giving Stefan a questioning look.

Wordlessly, Stefan just closed his eyes, slumped onto the couch and covered his face with his hands.

"I need to call Matt," Caroline said, struck by the thought and deciding not to be stressing over people overreacting while they had so many problems to deal with. Stefan propped his elbows on his knees and looked at Caroline with a half-amused, half-baffled expression on his face. "What? We need to stick to the plan and I'm pretty sure Bonnie and Damon would back me up on that if Bonnie wasn't missing and Damon wasn't starring in The Truman Show, Elena-style."

Stefan gave Caroline a weak smile and she chuckled tensely, slumping onto the couch next to him.

"I'm sorry, I always talk too much when I'm stressed out," she said with a sigh.

"Nah," Stefan said dismissively, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close. "You talk too much even when you're not stressed out," he said after a pause and Caroline poked him playfully in the ribs with a small smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Elena?" Damon dashed out of the room after her and stopped in his tracks relieved that apparently Elena wasn't planning on running anywhere very far.

She was leaning against the wall in the hallway right next to their room, her arms wrapped around herself, and the sight evoked an unclear image that flashed across Damon's mind: an exterior corridor... dark sky... light breeze... flickering lights... Elena abruptly turning around and running to him...

"I was going to tell you, just... not like that," Elena said somberly, glancing at the door with an annoyed frown before shifting her eyes to Damon who stepped in front of her and cradled her face in his hands. She smiled softly at the gesture.

"There's no reason for you to be upset, Elena," he said sincerely and then added with a glimpse of humor in his eyes. "You're not the wretch who seduced his brother's girlfriend."

Elena smiled weakly. "That's not what happened," she said, sliding her open palms up his chest and onto his shoulders.

"So you seduced me?" Damon asked, widening his eyes at her in mock dismay.

Elena laughed under her breath. "No. It just... We just... We were fighting it for very, very long," she said in a low, serious voice. "And nothing happened until I broke up with Stefan."

"Nothing," Damon repeated somewhat dubiously and smirked when Elena's eyelashes fluttered slightly as she tried to keep herself from smiling and rolling her eyes.

"We kissed," Elena admitted after a pause, squinting.

"Once," Damon said, mirroring her expression.

Elena sighed. "Twice. Well," her eyebrows furrowed at the memory of the deathbed kiss. "Three times. Three and a half," she amended after a moment of consideration.

An amused smile flickered across Damon's face. "Three..._ and a half_!"

Clasping her arms behind his neck, Elena leaned forward, pressing her lips to his. "Yes, the third kiss was rather... intense, but Jeremy walked in on us, so it ended."

"And it wouldn't have ended otherwise?" Damon asked, not letting Elena get away with the implication.

"I don't know," Elena shrugged with pretended nonchalance. "I just don't remember thinking about stopping or about telling you to stop," she said matter-of-factly and smiled against Damon's mouth when he kissed her, sneaking his arms around her and pulling her as close to him as possible.

Elena threaded her fingers through his hair, keeping one hand on his cheek, caressing the side of his face with her thumb.

"Seriously. There are 500 rooms in this hotel."

Damon and Elena pulled away and Elena smiled at the sight of Jeremy and Alaric, however, despite Jeremy's humorous remark they both looked rather worried and upset and Elena's smile quickly turned into an anxious frown.

"Where's Bonnie?" She asked, shifting her eyes between them.

"We need to talk and decide what to do," Alaric said, gesturing to the door that suddenly opened and Caroline stepped outside. "At last," Alaric said, glancing over her shoulder and noticing that Stefan was also in there. "Did you get on a wrong plane?" He asked with a small smile.

"Don't even ask," Caroline said with a grimace. "Where's Bonnie?" She asked, looking right and left and then giving Alaric and Jeremy a questioning look.

"According to the hospital, she's gone missing," Alaric said skeptically. "I looked around a bit, but didn't find anything. We don't know if they're telling the truth or not, but I'm not sure why they'd be lying about it. If they wanted to lure us in," he said, glancing at Elena," they would've let us know they had Bonnie."

"Unless they're insane like other Augustine people and just think they're doing a fellow human a favor by keeping her away from us," Caroline said with an irritated huff.

"Should we really be shouting about all that here?" Jeremy asked with a wry grimace, glancing around the corridor.

"Great. I'm doing everything wrong today," Caroline said, a little miffed and stepped back into the room.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow, giving her a questioning look before following her inside. Elena and Damon also turned toward the door, but after motioning for Elena to walk inside Damon shifted his eyes to Alaric.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked and then turned to Elena. "We'll be right back in," he said, leaning in for a kiss.

Elena nodded and smiled, pressing another kiss to his lips before closing the door behind her, leaving Damon and Alaric alone in the corridor.

"I may know how to check if they're telling the truth," Damon said after a moment of silence, keeping his voice low, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. "If they have Bonnie or not."

Alaric's eyes lit up with interest, an uncertain smile flitting across his face. "Why are we whispering?" He asked under his breath, squinting a little.

Damon shot him a grim look. "That Dr. August who was treating us, the one you and Elena think may have something to do with that weird secret society... I know where he lives."

"Ah," Alaric straightened up with a sigh. "You want to go and see if we can torture some informations out of him."

Damon blinked, giving Alaric an odd look. "No," he said with a grimace, a little stumped by Alaric's utterly pragmatic tone of voice.

Alaric's mouth twitched as he quickly checked himself. "I was just kidding," he said with a brief, strained chuckle. "So... what do you want to do?"

Finding Alaric's reaction definitely suspicious, Damon nonetheless continued, resuming his former tone. "I want to go talk to his daughter."

"Now I know why we're whispering," Alaric said with a ghost of a smile flickering across his face that Damon wasn't sure he liked at all. They were whispering, because he didn't want Elena to worry and he knew she wouldn't like the idea of him going to the house of someone as dangerous as they believed Dr. August to be, but before he had the time to clarify that, Alaric added. "But I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Do you have a better idea?" Damon asked with a shrug. "We'll at least know for sure if they're keeping Bonnie or not."

Alaric looked at him, considering it in silence for a moment. "Alright. We can say we're going to go get some spy gear, so we can drop a few bugs in the hospital and keep tabs on what's going on in there."

"Sounds good," Damon said, reaching out and pushing the door open.

"What do you mean Enzo didn't tell you we were in New Orleans?" Caroline was saying when Alaric and Damon walked into the room.

"He didn't say a word about you," Jeremy repeated, the frown on his face deepening.

"He was supposed to contact you and let you know what was happening with us," Caroline continued, perplexed, looking between Elena and Jeremy. "I told him you were in New Mexico and he didn't even mention he was here too," Caroline added, beginning to suspect it was all not a result of negligence on Enzo's part, but rather a deliberate decision.

"I knew we shouldn't trust him," Jeremy muttered grimly. "But why would he be doing anything against us? It makes no sense."

"Maybe he just ignored that we asked him to deliver that message to Elena and Jeremy?" Stefan said uncertainty. "Maybe he just had more important things to do," he said with a humorless snort.

"So what did Matt say?" Elena asked, looking at Caroline. "You started telling us, but-"

"If you don't mind another interruption," Alaric cut in and everyone's eyes shifted to him. "We'll just go very quickly to get a few things," he said, glancing at Damon. Stefan, who was sitting on the edge of the couch slowly rose to his feet. "We need everyone to have a cell phone," Alaric said, giving Elena and Jeremy a mockingly scolding, pointed looks. They smiled faintly in response. "And maybe we could get some listening devices to leave in that Dr. August's office."

No one seemed to have anything against this plan and Stefan opened his mouth to suggest he'd go with them too, but Elena cut him off.

"I'll go with you," she said, springing to her feet and quickly marching toward them.

"No, Elena, that's not necessary," Alaric said with a dismissive wave of his hand when she stopped in front of them.

"I know, but-" she said, shifting her eyes to Damon and trailing off when he grasped her hands, raised them to his mouth and leaning down pressed one kiss to each.

"We'll be fine. It will take us a couple of hours at most," Damon said, squeezing her hands in his.

Elena didn't look too happy about this, but when she glanced at Alaric she realized that maybe it was a good idea for Damon to spend some time with his friend, as they hadn't really had a chance to talk yet and she was certain Alaric wouldn't bring up any objectionable subjects from the past.

"Alright," she murmured, still somewhat reluctantly and slipping her hands out of Damon's grasp threw them around his neck and hugged him tightly, mouthing 'watch over him' to Alaric who nodded with a quick and a little uncomfortable smile, hoping that everything would go well and he wouldn't have to be explaining himself to Elena.

"I love you," Damon murmured in Elena's ear before drawing back.

"I love you," Elena whispered against his mouth, brushing her lips against his and taking a step back, letting Damon and Alaric out of the room.

Caroline looked at Stefan when he slowly sat back on the edge of the couch and it quickly occurred to her that he felt disappointed not to be included in the little venture. She wrinkled her nose, feeling a twinge of guilt at the suspicion that it might've been her careless comments that ruined the chance for a clean slate and instead made the brothers' reunion unnecessarily awkward.

Elena closed the door behind Damon and Alaric and came back to the room where Caroline, prompted by Jeremy resumed recounting her quite astonishing conversation with Matt.

"How does Klaus even have a child?" Jeremy marveled out loud, befuddled by the very idea.

"How can I know?" Caroline snapped, more annoyed than the question probably warranted.

"And how Klaus can help with the Travelers' spell?" Jeremy inquired with a frown.

Caroline threw her arms up in the air with a groan. "If instead of asking questions you'd actually let me talk and explain everything, I bet you might've known by now," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and shooting Jeremy a look.

"To be honest, I couldn't care less about all things related to Klaus right now," Jeremy said, his expression darkening. "When no one knows where Bonnie is and if she's OK." He looked away with a grim look and Caroline nodded wordlessly.

Elena was about to say something, but then the phone rang and she walked over to the nightstand where the phone was and picked up the receiver while Caroline took a deep breath and went on summarizing to Stefan and Jeremy the contents of Rebekah's letter to Matt. The most curious thing about the letter was that Rebekah hadn't seemed to be running from Mikael, like they had suspected. She wasn't mentioning Mikael in her letter at all. What she had mentioned, however, was some "unhinged scientists."

"Yes?" Elena asked into the phone, frowning at what Caroline was saying, her mind preoccupied with creating endless scenarios of what was going on and how they were going to solve all of this.

"Ah, just the person I wanted to speak with," Enzo said on the other side of the line and Elena's eyes flew wide open when he added. "Bonnie and I are having a chat, would you like to join us?"

xxxdelenaxxx

"So what is you plan exactly?" Alaric asked, after starting the engine and driving out of the hotel garage.

Damon turned his head to look at him, a flicker of a smile flitting across his face. "My plan is to talk to someone who will know if Bonnie's really missing, but you're clearly not buying it for reasons that I'd love to hear about."

Alaric smiled, looking right and left before making a turn and then glancing at Damon. "What did Elena tell you? About your life, I mean? About you?"

"I could probably make a living touring the country as a role model," Damon said wryly.

Alaric chuckled under his breath. "That's a bit of a stretch, but if you're looking for someone to berate you, Elena and I've been there, done that. You can't blame us for not wishing to talk about it anymore. We're past that. You're past that," he added, turning his head to look Damon straight in the eyes for a second, before glancing in the mirror to change the lanes. "I know that you may feel like you need to know everything, but... do you really?" Alaric slowed down before the traffic lights, staring pensively into the distance. "I was thinking about that on my way here and at first I thought that yes, sure, I'd like to know everything if I was in your shoes. But then," he looked up at the green light and the car started moving again, Damon's eyes drifting from Alaric's face to the dark street as he was listening intently in silence. "Then I remembered," Alaric continued in a firm, thoughtful voice, "some things from my past and I thought how great it'd be not to remember them, you know? Not because they were bad, but because eventually they turned out to be irrelevant. Of course, everything that happens to you makes you who you are and all that, but... Maybe all you really need to know are the things that made you who you wanted to be? Who you are now? Whom you've become once you broke through all those walls and shadows holding you down? That person that Elena was fighting for?" Alaric added after a pause and Damon's gaze darted back to his face. "The person she fell in love with," Alaric said with a small smile, holding Damon's gaze, "the person she was seeing before anyone else cared to see, even you, especially you?"

Damon looked away, his eyes absently following the changing images outside the car windows. It started to drizzle and the blurry shapes of buildings and people were blending with the streetlights.

"That's all the more reason to know," Damon said after a pause, his voice low, but resolute. Alaric gave him a questioning look. "I don't want to be living in a happy bubble while she's carrying all those memories, burdens with her, not only hers, not just ours, but mine, all by herself."

"Why don't you indulge us and let us carry those burdens for a while?" Alaric asked with a flitting, warm smile and turned off the engine. "Is that it?" He asked, gesturing to a large, well-lit house in front of them.

"Yes, but... I thought we were first going to-" Damon started, but then Alaric produced a listening device and a few other things from an inner pocket of his jacket.

"I always carry a couple of these, just in case," Alaric said, handing a miniature microphone that looked like a button to Damon and stepping out of the car.

Damon turned the device between his fingers before getting out of the car as well. "If it turns out Bonnie is here, I'll get her out. But if she's in the hospital or somewhere else, you should go ahead and go there as soon as possible," Damon said, adhering the microphone to one of his shirt buttons.

"Let's not make grand plans just yet. You never know what unexpected complications will ensue," Alaric said, glancing over his shoulder at the house.

"OK, now, you just have to bite me and I'll be all set to go," Damon said matter-of-factly, pulling on one of his handcuffs with his teeth, tearing the black fabric a little.

Alaric blinked, perplexed. "I just have to do what?" He asked, giving Damon a questioning look.

Damon tilted his head backwards, giving Alaric a mockingly scowling look. "I can't just happily stroll in and ask about Bonnie. I have to put on a little show. I can put on a good show, can I?" He asked as an afterthought, feeling the need to confirm the inner conviction.

"Oh yes," Alaric replied so immediately and with such absolute certainty in his voice that it actually made Damon frown.

"That was subtle, thanks," Damon muttered.

Alaric shrugged, stifling a smile.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** Thank you SO MUCH for all the fantastic reviews! :):):)

This awkward moment when we realize that maybe we should've done certain things Caroline's way... lol

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 11**

Having come up with an excuse about there being a problem with their reservation, Elena grabbed her jacket and hurried out of the room, her exit not raising anyone's suspicions if only because Stefan and Jeremy were too engrossed listening to Caroline telling them about her conversation with Matt and about what Matt had told her about Klaus' infant daughter apparently performing some magical tricks in the magic-free Mystic Falls.

It was news startling enough, but Elena wasn't even able to properly wonder about any of that, shaken up by Enzo's phone call. He had threatened to hurt Bonnie if she hadn't showed up alone at a designated place within half an hour and with Damon and Alaric gone, she had decided it was best to just go without letting anyone know what was going on.

Half way through the city, the dusk making it fairly easy for Elena to zoom across the streets without the unusual blurry movement being noticed whenever she would stop or continue on, she began questioning her decision of going alone. Perhaps it wasn't the wisest thing to do, but somehow she believed she could get Bonnie out and bring her to safety on her own. She wasn't really taking into consideration any other option, such as joining Bonnie in being held hostage, or whatever it was that Enzo was doing. She couldn't figure out what his intentions were, although she was hoping that she could at least talk him into letting Bonnie go.

Without much trouble, Elena found the isolated five-story building that looked like it was about to fall apart on the spot. She rushed in and up the stairs onto the top floor, not sure what to expect, her expression brightening at the sight of Bonnie looking safe and sound if a little tired and distressed.

"Bonnie!" Elena exclaimed, running to her without even bothering to look around the place. Bonnie's eyes flew to her in surprise mixed with anxiety that Elena seemed to completely ignore as she hugged Bonnie with a happy smile on her face. "Are you OK?" She asked breathlessly, drawing back and taking Bonnie's hands in hers.

Strangely, an image of a black crow surrounded by white feathers floating in the air flickered across Bonnie's mind and she flinched, causing a small frown to appear on Elena's forehead. But the frown faded when Bonnie hastily squeezed Elena's hands, both in a reassuring gesture and also in some abstract hope that it would trigger more images to spring into her mind.

"I'm OK," Bonnie said with a faltering smile, feeling suddenly annoyed that she couldn't remember anything. What if there was something important she _should_ remember? What if she _needed_ to remember? A familiar... comfortingly, thrillingly, _painfully_ familiar sense of responsibility settled over her and she felt shivers run up her spine at the sound of a voice in her head. Unknown and yet so overwhelmingly warm, the voice that made her think of soft pillows, cozy blankets, hot chocolate and fairy tales. _"I'm so proud of you."_

Elena smiled, but then out of the corner of her eye she noticed Enzo watching the scene with a mildly sardonic expression on his face.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked with a frown, giving him a questioning glare. "Do you know what she's been through? Why are you putting her through this? She never hurt you in any way. If anything, she actually made it possible for you to be here right now, so you should rather thank her instead of scaring her," Elena said, almost in one breath, not letting go of one of Bonnie's hands.

Bonnie's eyes flew to their hands. There was some kind of a clue in there. She didn't know what it was, but she had an abstract feeling that if she understood the meaning of that one clue, everything else would fall into place. _"When I touched you, I saw-"_

"He wants me to blow up a few buildings and a bunch of people and he says that I'm a witch," Bonnie said on an impulse, interrupting her own train of thought, following an inner urge to clarify the matter, to have someone tell her that she was not a witch, so she'd stop thinking about that, because she was beginning to drive herself crazy wondering about this ridiculous idea being true.

"_So Grams is telling me I'm psychic." _Bonnie shuddered inwardly at the sound of her own voice in her head. So lighthearted. So... similar to what her voice was like in the last three months. And yet she _knew_ this voice in her head was her voice from long ago. From... before. But not just before the memory loss. Bonnie drew a breath, feeling the tears gather in her eyes. The other before. Before-

"You want her to do what?" Elena asked incredulously, widening her eyes at Enzo and to Bonnie's distress focusing on Enzo's request and not on what troubled Bonnie most. "You want to blow up all the Augustine quarters?" Elena asked in quieter voice, wrinkling her forehead. "Kill everyone involved? Is that it?"

"He says I'm a witch," Bonnie blurted out, feeling a little awkward and guilty for probably coming across as insensitive and only concerned with this aspect of the situation. But it really wasn't because she didn't care about Enzo's atrocious designs. They were obviously not going to happen, that's why she thought it was more important to discuss the other matter. She needed to know that she wasn't a witch. And she wanted Elena to say it. _"Then we'll find another way, OK?"_

Elena shifted her eyes to her and Bonnie froze at the glimpse of anguish and hesitation in Elena's eyes, as if she was trying to find the right words to say what Bonnie desperately didn't want to hear.

"_Just answer one question. If the situation was reversed, would you do it for me?"_

"Let's not get too dramatic over this," Enzo cut in. "After all, it's for the common good," he said, walking up toward them and stopping a few feet away, a small, crooked smile flitting across his face.

"A mass-murder can hardly be in anyone's best interest," Elena said with a mirthless grimace. "They did horrible things to you, but it doesn't mean you have to do horrible things to them. That way you'll only become just like them."

Enzo rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, but I've developed low tolerance for banalities. And I don't doubt that morality talks may have some charm in an afterglow, but unless that's where we're headed I suggest you give up on trying to save my soul."

Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "Let Bonnie go."

"That's exactly what I called you here for," Enzo said with a glint of amusement in his eyes. Elena gave him a wary frown. "Looks like we're stumped, due to Bonnie's magical indisposition, so I figured it'd be better to send her off to brainstorm ideas with everyone on how to get her powers back while I wait here with a leverage."

Elena snorted mirthlessly. "That's not a very impressive plan," she said flatly while Bonnie just stared at her, taken aback by the sudden realization that Elena wasn't arguing the point at all, wasn't even surprised in the slightest by Enzo's repeated mentioning of Bonnie being a witch and of some alleged powers.

"Really?" Enzo questioned in mock surprise. "I actually thought it was a pretty good plan, especially considering that it included setting a non-negotiable deadline for your dependable circle of friends to come up with a solution," he added and then before Elena had the time to dwell on an ill-boding note in his voice, a dart gun appeared in Enzo's hand.

Bonnie yelped in horror, her eyes flying to the dart which on impact with Elena's skin injected a dose of yellowish liquid into Elena's arm. Elena gasped in surprise, but then her eyes widened in dismay when Enzo nonchalantly confirmed the first thought that had sprung to her mind.

"Werewolf venom."

"What?" Bonnie asked with a grimace, the words feeling both familiar and foreign, a nauseous feeling coming over her.

"I have the antidote, but unless you come back here along with your magic I'm afraid I may forget where I put it," Enzo said with a small smirk that didn't reach his eyes. "And without the antidote, she's going to die. I'm sure your friends can fill you in on how this works in greater, rather horrific from what I've heard, detail. Just ask them about a werewolf bite," he said with a wink. "Now off you go," he said, waving his hand at Bonnie in a farewell gesture and glancing at his phone. "There's a cab waiting for you downstairs. I'll keep in touch."

Bonnie stared at Enzo in aggravation, not knowing what to do, feeling as if something was boiling inside her, something more than emotions. It felt as if it was just beneath the surface, but nonetheless unable to break through it, some kind of anger and yet not really that.

"Bonnie, go," Elena said softly, giving her a reassuring smile while pulling the dart out of her arm and throwing it away. "Just go. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," she said quietly, but when Bonnie just kept shaking her head at her, refusing to move, Elena's expression became serious and she repeated, very firmly, "Bonnie, _go_."

Reluctantly, Bonnie made an effort to move and with tears in her eyes, telling herself that going to get help was a more rational thing to do than staying here and arguing with a madman, she ran to the door.

Elena looked after her and when Bonnie left, she slowly sat down in a nearby chair, clutching her arm with her other hand.

xxxdelenaxxx

"_Thank you."_

Damon stopped abruptly on the third step leading onto the porch of Dr. August's house, blinking against the faint light emitted by the dark blue lanterns hanging in a row near the door.

"_Not just for this, Damon. For everything."_

Damon drew a breath glancing around the dimly lit porch. Slowly, he took another step, relieved, that the memory didn't fade when he moved.

"_I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here."_

A faint smile of amazement flitted across Damon's face when for the first time the memory didn't last for a split second, but instead it lingered and he could almost see the entire scene play out in his head.

Watching Damon out of the car, Alaric noticed that he stopped in the middle of the porch and instead of knocking on Dr. August's door, Damon just stood there and Alaric wondered what was going on.

"Damon?" Alaric asked over the microphone, his voice in Damon's ear shaking him out of his reverie.

"Shhh," Damon made a low, hushing noise. "I think I just remembered something," he whispered, his voice shaking a little with excitement.

Alaric frowned, beginning to worry that he might've done something very, very stupid agreeing to this entire plan. It wasn't just one of his and Damon's usual reckless interventions, because Damon wasn't exactly himself right now. Not stopping a two centuries-old badass vampire from walking into the lion's den might be a questionable idea. But letting into the lion's den a human whose available life experience was limited to health issues and being in love was probably downright inexcusable. Alaric rubbed his forehead in a nervous gesture. He wouldn't blame Elena if she suggested to Bonnie that she should kick off getting reacquainted with her magic by setting him on fire.

Taking a deep breath, Alaric quickly suggested that they should call the whole thing off, but Damon hushed him again. Then, to Alaric's confusion Damon turned around and walked back and forth, up and down the porch steps a few times.

"What are you doing?" Alaric hissed into the microphone, seriously considering getting out of the car, grabbing Damon and driving back to the hotel.

"Does our house have a porch? I mean... does my house have a porch? Are we living together with Elena?" Damon asked barely above a whisper, his eyebrows furrowing in thought.

Alaric ran his hand through his hair, snorting humorlessly. "Damon, this is really not the best time for that. Yes, Elena's old house had a porch, if you must know, but-"

"Alright, calm down," Damon muttered through his teeth, reluctantly letting go of the memory, but storing each glimpse of it safely in his mind. He wasn't going to forget again what he had just remembered. It was difficult to be certain, but from the sound of the conversation, from Elena's reaction to his kiss, he strongly suspected it was their first kiss. He wished he could just run to Elena right away, ask her about it and tell her that it was the clearest and longest memory that had come back to him so far.

Trying to put himself back into a more appropriate mood, which wasn't easy after having just experienced something so thoroughly enjoyable, Damon raised his hand and knocked on the door, a little too energetically, he thought, and knocked again, this time in a more erratic way.

After a while the heavy door opened with a muted sound and Amanda appeared in the doorway, her expression quickly changing from mildly curious to startled and horrified.

"What happened? Are you OK?" She exclaimed, immediately ushering Damon inside and looking him up and down with worried eyes.

"You were right," Damon said in a slightly croaking voice, clutching his bleeding neck. "They're not... people," he whispered, wincing. He should've prepared a better speech and he kind of had prepared it, but the newly recovered memory was distracting him so much that he felt like the most devious thing he was currently capable of doing was to keep himself from grinning. "They are..." Damon trailed off, seemingly struggling to find the right words, but Amanda didn't appear to be waiting for any additional explanations.

"I was trying to warn you," she said, leading him into an oppressively bright living room and sitting him down on a cushioned couch.

"I know, but I thought..." Damon shook his head, as if it was increasingly difficult for him to speak. "They said... that I'm one of them and-"

"You're not," Amanda interrupted him in a firm voice. "Not anymore," she added before leaving the room and telling him to wait while she'd go get a medical kit.

Damon looked after her, frowning a little and wondering what it was exactly that she had meant. "Not anymore?" He asked when Amanda came back into the room.

She gave him a quick, uncertain look before setting a disinfectant, gauze pads and bandages and a few other things on a coffee table.

"You were a vampire before, but you're not anymore," she said somewhat grimly, pouring the disinfectant onto a gauze pad and tilting Damon's head to the side with her hand to give her access to the wound. She grimaced at the sight. "I don't know how it happened, how it is possible. There was never a single suspicious thing about any of your medical tests results," she continued, putting the gauze pad down and reaching for an antibiotic ointment.

"Wait. What are you talking about?" Damon asked, hoping that Alaric was able to draw better conclusions from this conversation than he was. "If there was nothing-" Damon hissed for effect even though the cleaning of the wound didn't really burn much. It even made an image or two flash across his mind and he always welcomed these: someone dragging him away from a stained-glass window... shoving him against the wall... _"You're not dying today!"_

"Sorry," Amanda muttered with a weak smile, her hand that was holding his head in place feeling awkward and cold on his cheek.

"How do you know that I was a... a... a vampire?" Damon asked, trying to pronounce the word with as much disgust as he could muster, thinking that he shouldn't have let the conversation go astray. He should've asked about Bonnie right away.

Amanda sighed under her breath, putting the ointment away. "My father and I... We... It's not just medical research that we're doing. I mean, it is medical research, but our specialization is a little unusual. My father's been involved for years with the Augustine Society which was founded to research supernatural species and estimate their medical usefulness for humans."

"The Augustine Society?" Damon asked, arching an eyebrow and trying not to move his head at all, because Amanda's thumb was already precariously close to his bottom lip and it felt more uncomfortable than he had ever thought possible. "Was it your father who founded it?"

Amanda smiled. "His father, my grandfather founded it, yes. My father took over when... my grandfather died of a vampire attack," she said with a clear note of anger in her voice. "One of his patients broke loose and attacked him."

"Broke loose?" Damon echoed, trying to keep contempt out of his voice.

Amanda's eyes darted to him and he wondered if he hadn't said something wrong or at least hadn't controlled his tone of voice enough, because there was a flicker of wariness in her eyes when she looked at him, even if it only lasted for a second.

"Vampires are animals," Amanda said sternly, cutting a larger piece of gauze and covering the wound with it. "Worse than animals. They're monsters. And that one was very strong. Anyway." She reached for a first-aid tape to secure the gauze with it. "The society has different units and each unit has a different scope of work. For example my father's unit is working on a cure for vampirism. There are units working toward finding ways of using vampire blood to cure diseases. There's also a unit that's working on a vaccination against vampires and a unit lobbying in favor of protective legislations, such as putting vervain in tap water everywhere."

Damon listened to her in silence, becoming more and more certain with every passing second that he should ask about Bonnie immediately and if she was here, get both of them out of here as fast as possible and then get Elena and everyone else out of this crazy town even faster than possible.

"Yes, but... how do you know that I was a vampire?" Damon asked, watching Amanda put the tape away and pour some water into a glass, the sight reminding him of her splashing the poisoned water on Elena and he gritted his teeth at the memory.

"Initially, I wasn't helping my father in the laboratory," Amanda said, filling the second glass. "I started by organizing his archives. My family has been documenting everything, they've written and gathered volumes on supernatural history and supernatural species, including... biographies of vampires."

"All the vampires in the world?" Damon asked dubiously.

"No, of course not," Amanda said with a small smile, glancing up at him. "Only the famous ones."

xxxdelenaxxx

"You don't have the antidote," Elena stated in an even voice, watching Enzo sit down at the table across from her. "The only antidote is Klaus' blood and I don't see how you could have it."

Enzo glanced at her with his eyes narrowed, a smirk playing about his lips. He reached down into a large paper shopping bag and produced cookies out of it. "I'd say impressive work, Miss Holmes, except that you're still clutching your arm," he said offhandedly.

Elena frowned, her eyebrows knitting in confusion. She looked at her arm and slowly removed her hand that she had instinctively put over the wound... only to discover that there was no wound on her arm at all.

"Did you really think I'd shoot you with werewolf venom?" Enzo asked, leaning back in his chair and leisurely crossing his outstretched legs one over the other.

Elena blinked in bafflement, shifting her eyes to him.

Enzo sighed and rolled his eyes. "This is not a suicide mission," he said, widening and then narrowing his eyes at her. "I'm actually planning on having a life after this, life that potentially includes going out with some long-lost friends. Now," Enzo tapped the tabletop and slightly leaned over it, "how high, do you think, would be the chances of Damon hanging out with me if he found out I'd shot the love of his life with a deadly poison?" Enzo looked at Elena expectantly, as if he was really waiting for her to answer his question. When she just stared at him in grim astonishment, he drew back and grabbing a bag from the table tilted it into her direction. "Cookie?"

"Bonnie and everyone else will still think that you did shoot me and they'll be worried," Elena said slowly, regaining her composure.

"If you're suggesting that I should be worried, because they're going to be worried, I think you're missing the whole point which is, precisely, for them to worry enough to get to work and get Bonnie back in touch with her magic," Enzo said, taking a cookie himself. "These are really good, you should try one."

"How do you want them to do that?" Elena continued in an urgent voice. "Even if they brought Bonnie her grimoires, she wouldn't have a clue what to do with them! And as you probably know, there's no medicine that can restore someone's lost memories."

"That's not my problem," Enzo said. "I've got time. Well, I'd rather they figure it all out sooner rather than later, but if it will be necessary to wait, I'll wait," he said with a shrug, taking a bite of his cookie.

"And in the meantime you're planning on keeping me hostage?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't even tie me up. I can zoom out of here any second," she said defiantly, straightening up in her chair.

"Are you suggesting I should tie you up?" Enzo asked, amused. "And why didn't you zoom out of here already if it's that easy?" He propped his elbows on the table, giving Elena a mockingly questioning look. "Humor me."

"Because I know why you want to destroy the Augustines," Elena said matter-of-factly, holding his gaze. "And I think I know why you think you have to do it and I also know that you don't really have to do it."

Enzo widened his eyes at her. "You do? I'm intrigued," he murmured with a wry smile.

"Maybe thinking about revenge was what kept you alive in that cell for 70 years," Elena said and not a muscle in Enzo's face twitched, but his eyes suddenly gleamed up with anger or interest, she couldn't tell for sure. "Maybe it was that anger that carried you through," Elena continued in a low, steady voice. "But now you're free. You don't have to hold on to that anger anymore. There are other things to live for. It's OK to let go of that anger, let go of the past." She drew a breath, half-expecting him to interrupt her, but he didn't. "I know that maybe you feel that if you let go of that, you'll let yourself down in some way. That you'll betray yourself if you let go of that anger. But this is not true." Elena gave him a faint, genuinely understanding smile. "There was a time when I felt like that too. I thought..." She averted her eyes for a second and when she looked back at him she noticed with a twinge of hope that he was listening to her intently. "I thought that I should always be exactly the same person that I was before my parents died. That I owed that to them. That if I changed, I'd be betraying them, betraying myself. But the truth was, I wasn't that girl anymore and it was OK to let her go. I wasn't betraying anyone by growing up. And you also won't betray anyone if you let that obsession with revenge go. Don't let them turn you into someone they thought you were when they locked you up in that cell," Elena said in an ardent voice and she could see in Enzo's eyes that he was at the very least noticing and accepting the sincerity of her concern. "Do you want them to win? They will only win if you let them finally turn you into someone you are not! I turned off my emotions when Katherine killed my brother," Elena said on an impulse, hoping that she was getting through to Enzo. "And when I turned them back on, the first emotion that came back... was hate," she whispered, almost choking on the word. "All I could think about was killing Katherine, because... almost every bad thing that ever happened to me and to the people I care about could be traced back to her. So I was clinging to that hate, I managed to convince myself that if I killed her, all that pain would somehow disappear. But the pain wouldn't have disappeared. The past wouldn't have vanished along with her. Instead, that hate would've just turned me into her. And _that_ would've been an actual betrayal. Only if I did kill her then I would've lost myself."

Enzo looked at Elena in silence for a second and then spoke in a low voice, a hint of dark irony resonating in it. "I appreciate the cautionary tale, but... the logic of it escapes me, I'm afraid. If you had killed her, she wouldn't have been able to do what she did afterwards. Don't you think it would've been much better for you and a few other people had you killed her then?"

Elena blinked back the tears, still not able to think about those nightmarish eventswithout feeling as if someone was ripping her heart to pieces. "No," she whispered with certainty that made Enzo look at her with renewed intensity. "It would've been better for her, not for us. She was given a chance to die having apologized and being forgiven, but she wasted it. As for us, we have survived. And we got back everything that we had lost and more. And you can too. You can have a new, happy life." A weak, sour smile flickered across Enzo's face, but despite him doing his best to retain his sardonic attitude, Elena could see in his eyes that her words weren't falling on deaf ears. "Stop living in the past, Enzo. Get out of that cell and look around. You're free now. You can choose your own future. It's all in your hands. It's all up to you."

xxxdelenaxxx

"We aren't able to identify all the vampires in the world," Amanda said with an audible hint of regret in her voice. "You can even know someone for years and never realize they're vampires. They learned to adapt really well. Some of them can walk in the sun. They can eat regular foods. And there's nothing in their appearance that might alert you at first glance. That's why they're so dangerous."

Adjusting the hearing device in his ear, Alaric squeezed his eyes shut, hitting his head against the headrest. "Damon, ask about Bonnie and get out of there," he said in a low voice, scolding himself inwardly for allowing for this to happen in the first place. The last thing they needed was for Damon to hear about his life from someone who was likely to present it in the worst way possible.

"Is Bonnie here? Is she safe?" Damon asked, instinctively following Alaric's advice and also because a part of him didn't want to continue the conversation.

"She wasn't with you? With them?" Amanda asked in what seemed to be a sincerely surprised tone of voice, the lack of worry, paradoxically, making it sound even more sincere. "She disappeared from the hospital a few hours ago. I figured they took her."

"No," Damon murmured, looking away in disappointment, although he quickly reminded himself that it wasn't exactly bad news. Maybe Bonnie had run away on her own, distressed by all those bewildering developments? Maybe she just needed some time alone.

"So you knew who I was throughout this time?" Damon asked almost absently, trying to think of a way to get out of this house as soon as possible.

Amanda sighed. "Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Amanda snorted weakly and shook her head. "What was I supposed to tell you? You're human now, but you used to be a monster, a vampire, a serial killer." She reached for one of the glasses on the table.

Damon grimaced in puzzlement. "Serial killer?" He echoed, thinking that she must've been going for some kind of a metaphor there.

"Damon-" Alaric started, blinking rapidly, but then a sudden clatter reverberated in his ear and he couldn't hear another word, just a series of incomprehensible noises. He groaned under his breath in frustration.

"I'm sorry," Amanda said, biting her lip in an apologetic grimace, having spilled water onto Damon's shirt. "So much for a drink. I'll get you a new one. A new drink and a new shirt."

"No, wait," Damon said, stopping her. "What did you mean by a 'serial killer'?" He insisted, so unpleasantly baffled by the expression she had used that he didn't even realize that the water had just severed his electronic connection with Alaric outside.

"I guess I could show you what we have about you in our archives," Amanda said after a pause. "Articles about alleged animal attacks, photographs of your victims, portraits, pictures of you, even some footage from the 1970s. But I don't know if that's really something you'd like to see. Although..." she continued after a moment of hesitation, either ignoring or perhaps actually encouraged by Damon's eyes shimmering with dread. "Maybe it'd show you, without a doubt, that what we're doing here is for the common good. That it wasn't me who was in the wrong throwing vervained water at that woman. I can show you what we have in our archives about her too."

"I don't think Elena's been a vampire for very long," Damon blurted out in a low, gentle voice, only after saying the words realizing that his tone might've given him away.

But Amanda seemed too hopeful about the possibility to share whatever it was she thought she knew about Elena to pay much attention to the reverent way in which Damon had uttered Elena's name.

"That's what she told you?" she asked with a sour smile, shaking her head. "She's been a vampire for longer than you were. She's 500 hundred years old! And her name isn't Elena. Guess she lied about that too." Amanda huffed in indignation. "Her name's Katherine and she's one of the most vicious vampires I've ever encountered in my research."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** Thank you _**so much**_ for your wonderful reviews! :]:]:]

I know, I know, two chapters in a row with no DE scenes. Believe me, I feel guilty without being told that I should lol But we're going to make up for it later, I promise ;)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 12**

"Alright. So... this is kind of awesome, but... it doesn't make any sense," Jeremy allowed after a long moment of silence that fell after Caroline had proposed they should write down everything they knew in bullet points. "Or at least I don't see how this is relevant to what we're going through," Jeremy added with a grim sigh, glancing at the door as if he was hoping Bonnie would knock on it any second. "You mentioned some kind of a deal with Klaus. Does the fact that his child seems to be turning Matt's words into physical objects affect that in any way?"

"It's not really a deal," Caroline grunted impatiently, glancing at Stefan who was sitting across from her, his head propped on his elbow. "We just promised him that Bonnie would put a permanent cloaking spell on the baby and in exchange, Klaus would lend us a page from his mother's grimoire that contains a swapping spell that could transfer the Travelers' spell from Mystic Falls to another town."

Jeremy narrowed his eyes at her. "Bonnie doesn't even remember who she is and you already signed her up for doing magic and helping Klaus?"

"Hey, I didn't sign her up for anything, OK?" Caroline protested. "He politely asked if she could do it-"

"He asked _you_ if _she_ could do it," Jeremy corrected with a grimace. "And please give me ten minutes to process the idea of Klaus politely asking for anything."

Caroline huffed in exasperation, shooting Stefan a pointed look when he smiled briefly at Jeremy's words. "He knows Bonnie lost her memory," Caroline continued in a reasonable voice, "and it's not like he gave us a deadline and threatened to kill us if we don't deliver," she said, rolling her eyes. "Because of some stupid prophecy, the witches of New Orleans are hell-bent on killing that baby and I'm sure Bonnie wouldn't have anything against doing a spell to protect an innocent child if she got her powers back."

"Unless the witches of New Orleans have a point," Jeremy observed wryly.

"Did you seriously just say that?!" Caroline widened her eyes at him.

"I'm not trying to beat the evil step-mother stereotype, so I can be saying whatever I want," Jeremy snapped, causing Caroline's eyes to widen even more, but before she had a chance to retort, a knock on the door interrupted them.

They exchanged questioning glances before Stefan stood up and went to open the door.

"Bonnie!" Jeremy screamed as soon as he saw her, even before the realization fully registered in his mind.

Almost tripping over his own feet, he rushed toward her and pulled her into his arms.

"Bonnie!" Caroline cried out, unceremoniously snatching Bonnie out of Jeremy's embrace and hugging her herself, without giving Bonnie a chance to say or do anything as she was being helplessly squeezed in a series of affectionate hugs.

With a nervous laugh, Caroline finally released Bonnie, but then she froze, because of how very pale Bonnie looked.

"Her heart!" Jeremy whispered hoarsely in dismay, struck by the realization when Bonnie's hand flew to her chest and she winced. "Bonnie has a coronary heart disease!" His mind reeling, Jeremy gently sat Bonnie down while she was trying to catch her breath.

Without thinking twice about it, Caroline sank her fangs into her hand and then, to Bonnie's horrified bewilderment, pressed her wrist to her mouth, rather harshly ordering her to drink when she noticed that Bonnie was about to put up a fight.

"It's OK, this will help you," Jeremy said earnestly, kneeling in front of Bonnie and hoping that the look in his eyes would convince her that it really was OK, even if the entire situation must've been feeling completely surreal to her.

"I'm your best friend, I wouldn't hurt you!" Caroline said hastily, removing her hand once she was certain that Bonnie had taken at least a couple of sips, if only because she'd had no choice. "Now you're all healed up!" Caroline said with a strained, cheerful smile that slightly faded when Bonnie stormed to her feet, motioning for all of them to stay away from her.

"I don't know what's going on here, but-" Bonnie drew a breath, shifting her eyes between Jeremy, Caroline and Stefan, and she was caught off guard by a sudden sense of peace that contrasted so dramatically with what she had just felt during the bizarre moments of being forced to _drink_ someone's _blood_. Drinking blood made her feel as if she was lost in the dark, but now, that she was looking at their faces it felt as if the lights were turned back on and she saw she was, surprisingly, somewhere safe and familiar. "Some psychopath named Enzo who said he was a _vampire_ shot Elena with a _werewolf_ venom and he said he won't give her the antidote unless I'll use _magic_ to vanquish some _anti-vampire_ organization," Bonnie said in one breath, her voice shaking.

She was half-hoping for her speech to elicit a laugh, but it didn't and so, with a resigned inward sigh Bonnie told herself that perhaps it was time to stop deluding herself that it might.

xxxdelenaxxx

He must've known all that at some point in time, because he was reading this story now like a dispiriting poem he had begrudgingly memorized and long since forgotten. A story of Katherine Pierce. Pages after pages of facts and rumors, a long list of places visited, neverending lists of alleged victims, alleged lovers. Family trees, trees showing people she turned who then turned other people... Tables of crimes that seemed nigh impossible to be attributed to just one, frail girl with Elena's face, no less. Elena's face. Elena.

"_That's not Elena,"_ Damon thought as soon as Amanda put into his hand a faded portrait from 1864. The resemblance was uncanny, he'd give it that. But the look in the girl's eyes was unmistakably different.

He also remembered Caroline mentioning a Katherine, which made it even more obvious that Elena and that girl were two different people and although it was strange they looked so similar, he was certain there was an explanation for that, probably not more bizarre than the explanation for the existence of vampires.

"She turned you into a vampire in 1864," Amanda continued weaving a story and Damon did his best trying to appear like he was interested in it.

And he was, to some extent, but there was also that inexplicable, overwhelming sense of exhaustion that made him impatient to close this subject and talk about something else. He listened to Amanda while looking at Katherine's portrait, trying to infer the actual true story out of it, but his mind was coming out blank: no images, just sounds, just some torn out pieces of angry conversations, accusations, screaming, shouting...

Gun shots.

And then silence, only silence, nothing but silence stretching and stretching and stretching into all directions, into a prolonged, blinding, deafening nothingness that was hurting every cell of his body until it burst into whiteness – then darkness, angry and suffocating, impossible to break through and it felt like he was drowning in a sea of black tar that was pulling him in, pulling him under, until he couldn't breathe-

But then...

"_I think you're gonna be the one to save him from himself."_

Suddenly, the darkness was gone and he felt as if an impossibly heavy weight was lifted off his shoulders.

"Damon?" Amanda looked up when the portrait fell out of Damon's hands and he straightened up with a frown.

"_It won't be because he loves me. It'll be because he loves you."_

"Are you OK?" Amanda asked watchfully, placing her hand over his.

Damon blinked and then slowly, so slowly as if he was just now making some kind of a shocking, exhilarating discovery he whispered. "I have a brother."

"Yes, you do," Amanda confirmed, even though she wasn't sure if Damon had meant for his words to sound like a question. "Here-" she started, reaching for one of the volumes sitting on the table, but then she trailed off when Damon's attention shifted to a set of photographs on his left hand side. "These are all from New York," Amanda said with a small sigh, glancing up at him. "We used to have two units in that area, both collecting visual data."

It didn't really look like anything at first sight. Or perhaps it just didn't make sense and that's why he couldn't make out a definite shape on the first photograph. If it wasn't for evidence markers, he wouldn't be able to tell that it was in fact a human body splayed over the blood-soaked pavement.

Damon let the picture slide onto the table before he looked at the next one, a pair of glassy eyes staring up at him. Another discolored photograph was showing two people, lying almost side by side, a pool of blood in between them.

Each picture was neatly marked with a date and his name. A few pictures had a question mark next to his name. Several, an exclamation mark followed by a reference number. Some had copies of eye-witnesses' written testimonies stapled to them.

Clenching his teeth almost to the point of crushing them, Damon blinked rapidly, looking at the photographs, one after another, with increasing speed. Torn necks, severed heads, bleeding wounds, empty, lifeless eyes blending together into one revolting image.

Every new picture appearing in front of him felt like a backward caress. Like he was losing something... losing the right to something... He'd give everything to bury his face in Elena's hair right now and hold her, hold onto her... But at the same time he felt like he shouldn't ever do that again. A bitter, sickening feeling of horrified disbelief and guilt was taking away, bit by bit, that thrilling, carefree sense of joy and wonder that had been accompanying him for the last several hours.

"Why did I kill all those people?" Damon asked, storming to his feet, accidentally knocking out the chair, a sleeve of his shirt swooshing over the photographs and documents on the table, sending some of them floating briefly up in the air.

"Because that's what vampires do," Amanda said with a resigned sigh, standing up as well. "But you're not a vampire anymore," she added with a small, encouraging smile. "That's the most important thing. Now you can make up for all of it."

"Make up?" Damon repeated with a derisive grimace. "Those people are _dead_."

"Yes, they are, but..." Amanda drew a breath, slightly narrowing her eyes at him, "you can help us keep other people safe. By finding ways of protecting them. By getting rid of monsters. Some of them didn't choose their fate, I know that," she amended, prompted by a guarded look in Damon's eyes. "But unfortunately it's irreversible. At least until we find the cure for vampirism, which we didn't yet. We don't know how you became a human again, but maybe one day you'll get your memories back and we'll find out how? Maybe it will be a breakthrough. But until then-"

Amanda fell silent when a muffled, strangled noise cut her off.

"What was that?" Damon asked, barely above a whisper, glancing around the room, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.

"I hope you know that I shouldn't be telling or showing you any of that," Amanda said in a low voice, giving him a wary look. "We have a small laboratory in the basement. Sometimes we bring test subjects in."

"Test subjects. You mean vampires?" Damon asked, recalling what Elena and Alaric had told him about the Augustine Society and its torture chambers.

"Not just any vampires," Amanda said after a pause. "My father only brings special cases in here. The vampire that we have in here now is a very old vampire. Even older than Katherine Pierce." She hesitated for a second before she asked. "Do you want to go see it?"

xxxdelenaxxx

His phone conversation with Caroline was a little nerve-racking, but Alaric expected the conversation with Elena to be much worse. First of all, he hadn't told Caroline what Damon and him were really doing. Second of all, Caroline was more enraged about Enzo _daring_ to pull a _stunt_ like that than about Elena being in real danger, since obtaining Klaus' blood to heal her once they got her back was going to be, according to Caroline, "easier than winning Miss Mystic Falls". Third of all, Bonnie was safe and that put everyone back at the hotel in a good mood.

Having convinced Caroline that they should focus on Bonnie while Damon and him would handle the Enzo situation, Alaric decided to try a slightly risky approach and he just hoped that he wasn't being overly optimistic about it.

Glancing at Dr. August's house with a frown, Alaric called the number Caroline had given him.

"I want to talk to Elena," he said sharply when Enzo answered the phone.

Enzo was about to point out the lack of manners evident in the missing greeting, missing introduction and an openly unfriendly tone, but Elena, who was sitting right in front of him immediately recognized Alaric's voice and without a word just snatched the phone out of Enzo's hand. Enzo gave her a mockingly confounded look that turned into a sincerely angry one when Elena told Alaric right away that she was fine and that the werewolf venom wasn't real.

Enzo stormed to his feet, trying to get the phone from her, but then his hand stopped in mid-air when the expression on Elena's face changed from a mildly defiant into a horrified one.

"He is _where_?" Elena exclaimed with a grimace. "Why? What are you doing there?" She asked incredulously.

"We wanted to check if maybe Bonnie was there," Alaric explained in a worried, self-berating tone. "I know it was stupid."

"Tell Damon to get out of there!" Elena said in an agitated tone, scanning the space around her with unseeing eyes.

Enzo narrowed his eyes at her and started listening in to the conversation, trying to understand what was going on.

"Yeah, well, there's a little problem with that," Alaric said with an irritated huff. "We lost the connection, something must've happened with the device-"

"You're not serious," Elena cut him off with a mirthless snort, her hand flying to her forehead as she kept shaking her head with a disbelieving grimace on her face. "We need to get him out of there!"

"I know, but-" Alaric drew a breath and squeezed his eyes shut for a second, utterly embarrassed and angry with himself for letting this happen and not even remembering what he had been thinking. "I haven't been invited in and-"

Enzo rolled his eyes and groaned under his breath. Elena's eyes darted to him.

"The Augusts' house at Maple Avenue?" Enzo asked in a voice that sounded simultaneously a little amused and very irritated.

"Yes," Alaric confirmed before Elena reacted to the question.

"I can get inside," Enzo muttered with a frown.

"You've been invited in?" Elena asked with a ghost of a hopeful smile flickering across her face.

"Perks of being the most handsome policeman in town," Enzo said with a humorless smirk. "I knew you people were going to ruin everything," he added with an annoyed huff, producing car keys out of his pocket and heading out.

"We'll be there soon," Elena said hurriedly into the phone and quickly made to follow him.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What kind of nonsense did that idiot come up with?!" Caroline exclaimed in annoyance, pacing around the room and waving her hands in the air in exasperation. "Bonnie, you were not a part of any secret murderous group fighting anti-vampire organizations! You were just a regular witch! Well, not a regular witch. An awesome witch, but anyway. Just a witch! A good witch," Caroline went on with a radiant smile. "You did lots of wonderful things! Saved lots of people! Saved us so many times!"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Bonnie muttered, widening her eyes at Caroline whose smile faltered a little. "Or less crazy?"

"You're not crazy!" Caroline said with a nervous chuckle.

"I know I'm not," Bonnie replied immediately. "You are!" She said, jumping to her feet.

Caroline shifted her eyes to Stefan who shrugged a little, mirroring her worried expression.

"Bonnie..." Jeremy quickly followed her toward the window. "Can you leave us for a few minutes?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at Caroline and Stefan.

They quickly agreed and said they'd be waiting in their room. Bonnie looked after them and when the door clicked closed, she crossed her arms over her chest and gave Jeremy a narrowed-eyed look.

"I don't think you're less crazy than them, just so you know," she said grimly.

"But at least you think I'm hot, so that's a start," Jeremy said, stifling a smile.

Bonnie blinked and then unsuccessfully tried to suppress a laugh. "What?"

"Well, you did think that before," Jeremy said with a small shrug.

"I actually _said_ that to you?" Bonnie asked skeptically, arching an eyebrow.

Jeremy laughed briefly. "Actually yes, you did."

"Well, I guess I'll have to take your word for it, since your memory is obviously better than mine," Bonnie said with a sigh and then rolled her eyes and to Jeremy's delight returned his warm, bright smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What day is today? Thursday," Enzo answered his own question, reaching down and pulling a tablet from under his seat when they got into the car parked at the back of the building. He handed the tablet to Elena and started the engine. "Check the schedules in the NMA folder," he said, hastily turning around the building, tiers screeching.

Shifting her eyes from him to the tablet, Elena quickly found the folder that seemed to contain detailed daily schedules of all the members of Dr. August's family.

"It's 8.15 pm," Enzo said, keeping his eyes on the road and taking a left turn.

"Dr. August is supposed to be at the hospital until 11," Elena said, quickly looking through different tables. "His wife... It says a charity meeting every two weeks... She should be there until 9... if that's today."

"It is today," Enzo said after moment of consideration. "How fortunate. Probably only one person in the house. I'll get in, kill her, get Damon out. Wait at the end of the street and then follow us with your car," Enzo outlined the plan of action in a flat voice.

Elena's eyes darted to him. "Kill her? You're not going to kill anyone," she said in such a definite voice that Enzo couldn't decide if he found it more endearing or annoying.

"Amanda August is on my hit list anyway," he said in a comforting tone, despite the expression on Elena's face making it clear she wasn't finding his words comforting at all. "She's really into this whole anti-vampire crusade, so I'm not going to take my chances and give her an opportunity to shoot me with something."

"You're not going to kill her," Elena repeated with an incredulous grimace. "Can't you just get Damon out in a normal way under some pretext? Say that you need to take him to the police station to interrogate him? She knows you. She saw you arrest Jeremy. She won't be suspecting you of anything."

Enzo snorted under his breath and rolled his eyes. "Alright. Logical arguments don't work for you. Got it. How about this." He gave Elena a small, impish smile. "She's into your boyfriend."

Elena looked up at him from the tablet, caught off guard by the argument. "I'm sorry, but that's still not a good enough reason to kill her," she said slowly with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, although for a moment she wondered just why exactly Damon and Alaric had gone there in the first place. If it was only to check if Bonnie was there, why they hadn't just said so instead of pretending they were going to a store.

"Why are you making this so complicated?" Enzo asked with a grimace.

"Me?" Elena gave him a pretendedly surprised look. "You're the one who chose to discuss your plan with me," she added and smiled inwardly at a glimpse of consternation that flashed in Enzo's eyes.

xxxdelenaxxx

"She's hurt," Damon gasped out when he finally found his voice, not knowing if he was more shocked by the sight of a semi-conscious blonde girl tied up to an operating table, her shin split open and held open with metal clamps, a bone clearly visible in between bloodied, pulsating fibers – or a completely detached way in which Amanda was explaining the impressive self-recovery of a fractured bone. "She's in pain."

"Do you have any idea how much pain she's caused?" Amanda asked, slightly widening her eyes at him. "How many people she killed?"

"I did too," Damon said tonelessly, his throat contracting at the memory of the photographs.

"Yes, but you're human now," Amanda said, stifling an urge to roll her eyes.

"And if I wasn't I'd be here instead?" Damon asked, but it didn't really sound like a question.

"I'm trying to help you," Amanda said with a frown. "When we realized what you were before, my father wanted to lock you up right away, just in case. I convinced him to give you a chance."

"A chance?" Damon shook his head with a grimace. "Who do you think you are? You capture people, torture them-"

"They're not people!" Amanda interrupted him in an agitated voice. "People don't do things like that," she said, gesturing to the bandage on Damon's neck, but then she trailed off, struck by a sudden thought. "Why are you really here?" She asked, squinting.

"I'm trying to find Bonnie," Damon replied with a frown, glancing at the operating table, wondering if he should try to free the girl right now or perhaps leave first and then come back here later with Alaric.

"I know, but... I thought you were also trying to escape _them_," Amanda said, her voice acquiring a steely quality. "That you understood what they were, that you decided you didn't want to have anything to do with them. But it seems that you're blinded. Is it because of her? Yesterday you didn't even know she existed! Didn't you just see all those proofs, read all those accounts of her actions? She's a monster! And she enjoys being one!" Amanda shook her head with a disbelieving, humorless snarl. "You're going to go back to them, right? Fine. Your choice. Go," she said in irritation and Damon decided that perhaps it was best to go before she'd change her mind. If he tried to free the girl on the table now, no doubt Amanda would just stab him with one of those handy syringes that were laying around and then he'd just end up trapped here and unable to help anyone. Coming back later when there'd be no one in the house seemed like a better idea.

"This is wrong," Damon couldn't stop himself from saying, glancing around the white-washed laboratory before taking a step back. "This is not the right thing to do, not the right way." He turned around.

"I'm sorry that you don't see it, but we're only trying to help. Help humans, but also them. One day we'll find the cure for vampirism and then they'll be given a chance to be normal again. We _will_ free this world of monsters, this way or another," Amanda said decidedly and Damon turned his head to look at her and reply, but then flinched when she leaped toward him and inserted a needle into his arm.

With a stifled groan, Damon pushed her away, pulled the syringe out of his arm and threw it away.

"What did you do? You said I could go and then-"

"I'm not stopping you," Amanda said, straightening up. "I'm really just trying to help you," she said, widening her eyes at him, her voice heavy with conviction and desperation.

"How? By poisoning me?" Damon asked with a wry grimace, relieved that he wasn't feeling weak or drowsy just yet and that perhaps he could still get out of here before whatever Amanda had injected him with began to take effect.

"That's not a poison," Amanda said, wrinkling her nose. "That's a vaccine."

Damon blinked, giving her an irritated, questioning look. "Against what?"

"We didn't find the cure for vampirism yet, but we found a vaccine against vampirism," Amanda said in a calm, firm voice, holding Damon's confused gaze. He was looking at her with a grim frown, trying to make sense of what she was saying. "Thanks to this vaccine, they won't ever be able to turn you into a vampire again."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** THANK YOU SO MUCH for your gorgeous reviews! *hugs*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 13**

Bonnie slumped onto the bed and looked at the grimoires that Klaus had managed to send in. She couldn't help, but wonder who Klaus was, because when she'd asked if he was their friend, both Jeremy and Caroline had denied the idea with rather extreme vehemence. Then again, she didn't feel like hearing any more disturbing stories right now, so perhaps it was for the better she hadn't asked them to explain their reaction.

She had talked with Jeremy for almost three hours and it was clear he had really been trying to tell her as much as he could and explain everything as much as possible, although Bonnie still struggled to make sense of her short yet seemingly very complicated life. Jeremy had said that it was her grandmother who had been teaching her magic and that at first Bonnie hadn't even believed her that she was a witch. He'd mentioned that Elena was the first person Bonnie had told about all that, so perhaps she could provide her with some more insight concerning her beginnings as a witch.

Out of curiosity, Bonnie started looking through the grimoires, turning tattered pages and trying to read the words and decipher the symbols, but none of them were evoking any feelings in her and it all looked like a story in a language she didn't know at all. Even a small, thick, square grimoire Jeremy had said she'd started to write herself didn't trigger any thoughts. Bonnie stared at what seemed to be her own handwriting, but the words and drawings were not making any sense to her. Even though deep down she felt that they _might_... if she wanted them too. And that probably was the main problem.

Closing one of the grimoires with a quiet thud, Bonnie rose to her feet. It didn't seem like a great mystery, her reasons why she had no interest in being a witch again. Her grandmother had died after performing a spell that had exhausted her beyond her strength. There were some unclear dealings with the "spirits" that Bonnie had supposedly angered. There was dark magic that she had apparently delved into to bring Jeremy back from the dead. A long, steep trail of questionable choices that had led to her own death. And later to her coming back to life – and due to another unexpected twist, also to her becoming the "anchor," the concept Bonnie couldn't really wrap her mind around. The idea of serving as a literal doorway between the world of the living (or rather undead) and the world of the dead... Bonnie could tell it must've been awful, if only judging from the way Jeremy's eyes darkened and his features tensed when he had been telling her about that in a low voice, his teeth clenched.

It was late and she was tired. Looking out of the window at the town lights shimmering in the semi-darkness below, Bonnie thought that perhaps she should just follow Caroline's advice, take a bath, go to sleep and continue thinking about everything tomorrow.

With a sigh, Bonnie went to the bathroom, turned on the water and sat on the edge of the tub.

Jeremy had reassured her that if she didn't want to have anything to do with magic, it was her choice and she didn't have to worry about that at all. Of course Bonnie hadn't missed Caroline mumbling something about their home town being under a spell, but Jeremy had wordlessly silenced her with a pointed look and so Bonnie hadn't really gotten any details on that.

On the one hand, she didn't want to know, but on the other hand... If she was to be completely honest with herself, bringing people back from the dead and lifting curses sounded pretty cool. Then again, it seemed that in her previous life everything had eventually started spiraling out of control and there was no guarantee this wouldn't happen again. And she wasn't sure she was ready for that. She felt like nothing would work until she made her choice and decided if she _wanted_ to be a witch again or not. She needed a reason. Perhaps her being alive was a good enough reason, she had to take that under consideration. After all, according to Jeremy, it was literally a miracle that she and Damon were alive. If only she could remember how this had happened. Maybe then it would've been easier for her to decide.

Last but not least, regardless of everything, she had no idea how she could start being a witch again. Was there some kind of a triggering spell that could turn her skills on?

Snorting under her breath, Bonnie undressed and got into the bathtub, smiling at the realization that, technically, she'd _never_ taken a bath before, because in the hospital she'd only been taking showers.

Having submerged herself in the comfortably warm water, Bonnie looked around in search of a soap and groaned inwardly when she noticed that it was lying on the vanity, very much out of reach. She'd have to get out of the tub to get it and she really, really, really didn't want to-

Bonnie's eyes widened in astonishment, when suddenly the soap bar lifted itself in the air and started floating toward her. She abruptly straightened up in the tub and the soap fell to the ground as if someone had dropped it.

Her heart pounding in her chest (and she rather hoped Caroline's blood had really healed her heart, as ridiculous as the entire idea still seemed to her), Bonnie very slowly leaned over the edge of the tub and looked at the soap bar on the floor a little fearfully.

She tried to remember what she had done, what she had _thought_ a few moments ago-

And sure enough, to her disbelieving exhilaration, the soap shot up into the air once again and as she kept her eyes fixed firmly on the bar, it floated straight into her open palms.

After staring at the soap for a longer while, Bonnie shook her head. "This is seriously weird," she muttered to herself and laughed under her breath.

xxxdelenaxxx

"That was easy," Enzo said, raising an eyebrow when before he even got to knock on the door it opened and Damon stormed out of the house almost colliding with him.

"I'm sorry," Damon muttered absently, briefly looking the police officer up and down. He took a step to the side, but then stopped, thinking that perhaps he should take advantage of this chance meeting and report what was going on in Dr. August's basement. But before he opened his mouth to speak or realized what was happening, Enzo grabbed him and zoomed with him off the porch and back toward where the cars were parked.

Elena and Alaric were standing next to Alaric's car, Elena's expression anxious and a little upset as she was about to start listening to Alaric's explanations, which were cut short, because Enzo came back a mere minute after he had left.

"Do I get bonus points for speed?" Enzo asked with a brief smirk, brushing imaginary dust off Damon's shoulder and lightly shoving him straight into Elena's arms.

Alaric glanced at Enzo, not sure what such an instantaneous return meant.

"Damon!" Elena gasped out, overwhelmed with relief, her arms immediately wrapping around him. She cradled him to her, trailing hurried kisses across the side of his face.

Maybe if he wasn't so stunned by this turn of events and caught off guard by Elena's appearance, Damon would've been able to act on his earlier thoughts. But her sudden closeness was too much and he couldn't bring himself to care whether he deserved to hold her or not. He locked his arms around Elena and pressed his lips to her cheek.

"I'm sorry," he whispered and she drew back to look at him. "I-"

"You could've just told me," Elena blurted out on an impulse, despite having intended to bring it up later and in a much calmer and more reasonable voice, "if you wanted to visit someone-"

Damon shook his head, cutting her off. "No. No, Elena... I just thought that maybe Bonnie was here," he said with a frown, tucking her hair behind her ears, his thumbs sliding down her cheeks.

Elena's eyes lit up and she was quite certain that the smile that flitted across her face was ridiculously content. "Bonnie's safe," she said, placing her hands on his cheeks. "Enzo got her out of the hospital," she added, glancing at Enzo who squinted and slightly shook his head in mocking exasperation, silently communicating to her that glamorizing his past actions wasn't going to affect his future ones.

"That's good," Damon said and Elena smiled, but then her smile turned into a frown when she realized that Damon's eyes were still veiled with worry and sadness and that apparently there was something more, something else that was bothering him. "Do we know each other?" Damon asked cautiously just to clarify, looking at Enzo over his shoulder.

"Well, not to brag, but I'm your best friend," Enzo replied with a small, crooked smile.

Alaric widened his eyes at him and snarled derisively.

"I think you can argue about this later," Elena said, despite finding the prospective argument rather heartwarming. She glanced up at Damon, but he seemed unaware of it, apparently lost in his own thoughts, his expression so grim that Elena's heart skipped a beat, her anxiety growing.

"There's nothing to argue about," Alaric said with another snort. "Alright. Let's go," he said, glancing at Damon and Elena and getting into his car.

Enzo watched him with his eyes narrowed and when Alaric closed the car door, he zoomed toward Damon and Elena and before they had the time to protest, he unceremoniously ushered them into the backseat of his car, jumped into the driver's seat and started the engine.

Not sure what was going on, Alaric shook his head in annoyance and having no other choice followed Enzo's car.

"Wait, we have to go back," Damon said, shaking himself out of his reverie, leaning forward, instinctively grabbing one of Elena's hands and holding it tightly in his. He knew that he should talk to her first, before just picking up where they had left off, but a mere thought about staying away from her seemed to be having the exact opposite effect on him and he was feeling the need to keep making sure she was right next to him even more. "There's a girl locked up in the basement of that house. We have to go back for her. We can't leave her there."

Enzo sighed. "I'm really tempted to say something right now," he said, glancing into the mirror and meeting Elena's simultaneously pleading and warning gaze. "To cut a long long story short," Enzo continued and Damon wondered if he was saying what he had just said he was tempted to say or rather jumping to a different train of thought, "I have a plan that requires keeping a low-profile and breaking a vampire out of that basement right now could potentially hurt my plan. Collateral damage and all that. Sorry."

"You don't understand," Damon said with a frown. "They're torturing her-"

"Oh, I do understand," Enzo cut Damon off, shooting him a lingering look over his shoulder.

"Enzo spent 70 years in a similar place," Elena said quietly, shifting her hand in Damon's grasp and sliding her fingers in between his. "That's how you met." She drew a breath. "What Enzo meant to say was that we'll come back for her later," she added, holding Enzo's gaze in the mirror.

Enzo rolled his eyes, but said nothing, which Elena hoped was a sign that he was at least open to talking about that later.

Damon looked at Elena, trying to return a faint, reassuring smile that she gave him, but failing. He averted his eyes from her and stared out of the window for a few seconds, a nagging voice in his head telling him to release her hand, but he found himself clutching it tighter and tighter in his instead.

"Damon, are you OK? What happened in there?" Elena asked, turning fully toward him and gently cupping one of his cheeks with her open palm to make him look at her.

His eyes wandered all over her face a little frantically before, after a moment of hesitation, he decided to ask, his voice low and uneven. "Elena... Did you know all that?"

"What do you mean?" Elena asked with an uncertain frown, her breath catching in her throat.

"Did you know all that... about me," Damon replied hollowly and Elena's mouth twitched. She shook her head, trying to guess what exactly he could be talking about, a sinking feeling that he might've heard about or remembered some disturbing facts torn out of context sending cold shivers up her spine. "About... all those... horrible things that I've done," Damon whispered and trailed off, studying her face with utmost intensity, as if he was half-hoping she'd known... half-hoping she hadn't...

Slowly, Elena drew a breath. She wanted him to be free of all the dark and sad memories, for as long as possible. And she felt a twinge of painful regret at the realization that it seemed that her plan wasn't going to work, not even for one whole day.

"Did someone tell you something? I don't know-" Elena started, but Damon cut her off, brushing the side of her face with the back of his hand, a strangely rueful grimace flitting across his face.

"I want to hear it from you," he said and only after saying the words out loud he realized how true that was, how he wished he had learned it all from her. "If you know," he added under his breath, suddenly afraid that she didn't know anything and that when he told her, it'd change everything.

"We all have done horrible things," Enzo observed in a low, flat if a little raspy voice, his eyes fixed on the road.

Elena's and Damon's eyes darted to him, but then they looked at each other again.

"But I don't remember what I've done," Damon said somberly after a pause. "Now I only," he grimaced at the word, "know what I've done. I killed... I killed... so many people. I spent two hundred years killing people-" he spoke in a faltering voice laced with incredulity and panic that reminded Elena of her own feverish reaction to Connor's death.

"No, no, that's not how it was," Elena protested, interrupting him in mid-sentence and placing her hands on his shoulders, sliding them onto his neck. "You weren't like that. Not... usually, not all the time," Elena groaned inwardly at her inability to quickly find the right words that would be precise enough not to be giving off some ambiguous impressions.

"Not all the time," Damon echoed with a bitter, sad, humorless smile, looking at her in a way that made Elena's heart beat faster and not in a good way. _"Stop defending me!"_

"After you escaped from the Augustines you were in a really bad place," Elena said, holding his face in her hands and looking him straight in the eye. "They'd been torturing you for five years. You thought Enzo was dead," she continued ardently, her eyes darting to Enzo for a second. He was looking at the road, his face unreadable. "You and Stefan weren't really speaking. You didn't have anyone, any place to go. You were all alone." Elena swallowed, blinking back the tears, feeling abstractedly angry that she had to be saying such things out loud. "And you... turned your emotions off," she whispered with a grimace, but Damon's expression didn't change and she felt like she was losing the ground under her feet. _"You're making excuses for someone you love, that's what you do."_

Damon shook his head, a resigned frown deepening on his face. "Elena-"

"Damon," Elena interrupted him in the most decisive tone she could muster. "I didn't mean this as a metaphor. You literally turned off your emotions, your humanity. Vampires can do that. They can choose not to feel. If we turn our humanity off, all the guilt, sadness, despair, all other emotions, both good and bad - are gone. And you turned that switch off... for a few years."

Damon looked at her in silence for a few seconds and she hoped that maybe she had convinced him to think about the past differently, but then he spoke, his voice quiet, but firm.

"This doesn't change anything," he said and then to Elena's growing dismay covered her hands with his and gently, regretfully slid them off his face.

She drew a breath, feeling like she was losing him all over again, like it was some kind of a nightmarish déjà vu.

"I have a suggestion," Enzo cut in and Elena's eyes darted to him, but he was looking straight ahead, not at them and she couldn't see the exact expression on his face, couldn't infer from his tone what he was going to say. "Instead of wondering about all the awful things that you've done," Enzo said, turning into a parking lot. "Why don't you start wondering about the things you must've done that make everyone hover over you so much right now?" Enzo stopped the car, turned off the engine and flashed them a brief smile, before getting out of the car.

Elena let go of a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. She glanced at Damon, but the frown on his face was still there, although he blinked a few times, Enzo's words apparently breaking through that barricade of resignation a little.

They got out of the car and only then Elena noticed that they weren't at the hotel like she had expected them to.

"That's not our hotel," she stated unnecessarily and Enzo gave her an amused look.

"Clearly. It's a bar. My bar," he said, gesturing for them to follow.

"Yours as in you own it or you spend every night in here," Damon asked, trying to find some space in his mind that was free of thinking about his dark past or the vaccine, but not really succeeding. He looked at Elena, feeling his heart clench painfully at the realization that one day he wouldn't be able to look at her anymore. One day he'd be gone. He'd have to die and leave her.

"Mine as in I have most of the staff compelled," Enzo replied with a smirk.

"What's going on here?" Alaric asked with a grimace, catching up with them, having parked his car next to Enzo's.

Elena shook her head, signaling her confusion, but then whispered when Alaric came closer to them.

"Maybe that's not a bad idea. We still need to talk him out of this Augustine scheme."

"Yeah, and he probably wants to talk us into it," Alaric observed dryly.

Elena shrugged and then stopped in her tracks. "We'll be there in a minute," she said, giving Alaric a quick nod and pulling Damon aside while Alaric reluctantly walked into the bar after Enzo, not entirely convinced hanging out with him was the best way to spend an evening, especially for Damon.

Grabbing Damon's hand, Elena pulled him with her a few steps away from the bar entrance. They turned around the corner of the building and into a very narrow, dark alley.

"I feel like I should say something funny right now, but..." Damon said with a weak smile when Elena backed him up against the wall.

"You would have," Elena said with a small smile. She stepped on her tiptoes and brushed her lips against his. "I didn't want you to find out about all that in such a way," she whispered, placing her hands on his shoulders. "And I know you're confused and that it seems really terrible when you think about it in human terms-"

"Does it make any difference?" Damon asked, almost involuntarily raising his hand to push a few strands of hair off her face. "Not all vampires kill people, do they? And what you said earlier about that humanity switch. I _chose_ to turn it off, right? So the responsibility is still mine."

"I'm not saying it isn't," Elena said, grazing his lips with her fingertips. "You never thought it wasn't. You were always taking responsibility for your actions. I'm not trying to justify your actions," she continued with more confidence, noticing that his feverish adamance seemed to be subsiding a little, "I'm just trying to explain them to you. You turned off your emotions, because you didn't want to care, because you got hurt so many times that you lost faith in people. You were, you felt alone for most of your life. Or worse than alone. Abandoned. Betrayed. And I was glad that you didn't remember that. I wanted you not to know about any of that for as long as possible. I wanted you to be that kind, charismatic, trusting person that you once were, that deep inside you've never stopped being. And as much as it makes me sad that you don't remember our time together, it is nothing compared to how happy I was seeing you like that, without all those grim memories lingering at the back of your mind. And you were always so hard on yourself that I knew if I told you everything, you'd just focus on the bad parts, like you're doing right now."

Damon shook his head, a broken, self-berating smile flickering across his face. "Elena." His forehead fell against hers, one of his hands getting lost in her hair. "I'm not. I should, but I'm not. I should be thinking about all that, but all I can think about is you. I'm thinking about all that, but... I feel like I'm thinking about all that mostly because of how it may affect you, us. When I saw all those photographs- what I've done- I wanted to tell you to stay away from me, but I _can't_."

"Don't you dare," Elena said ardently, cupping his face in her hands. "That's what you did before. That's why you broke up with me the first time and everything started crumbling into pieces after that. We can't be apart," she added almost threateningly.

"You always do this," Damon said under his breath, covering Elena's hands with his, studying her face in warm wonderment that immediately calmed her down and she felt that they had finally moved a few steps away from the precipice.

"You started doing it first," Elena whispered, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. "The first time you did this... it was raining, I was very worried, we were both worried, because of some things happening... You put your hands on my cheeks like that and... and when you did it, I immediately felt, I _knew_ that everything was going to be alright."

"That's what I'm feeling right now," Damon said quietly after a pause and Elena smiled, locking her arms around his neck.

Damon closed his eyes and they were standing in silence for a longer while, holding onto each other.

"We should get inside," Elena said at last, hoping that whatever Enzo's main purpose of bringing them here was, perhaps a night out would help to take Damon's mind off grim thoughts. "I'm not sure Ric and Enzo can handle that much alone quality time together."

"What about our alone quality time together?" Damon muttered into her hair and drew back, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her tenderly on the mouth.

Elena smiled and he made an effort to smile as well, but every time he tried to smile now, it only caused gruesome images to spring to his mind, as if to remind him that he didn't have a right to smile. He also didn't know how to tell Elena about the vaccine and every passing moment was making it harder and harder for him to tell her.

"We'll get to that part," Elena said with a hint of humor in her voice, although she could still see a persistent glimpse of sadness in Damon's eyes and with an inward, worried frown she tried to figure out what she could do to make that go away for good.

xxxdelenaxxx

"You've got to see this!" Bonnie announced excitedly, running into Caroline and Stefan's room.

Jeremy's first reaction was a twinge of panic and he scolded himself inwardly for leaving Bonnie alone, even though it had been her idea, but then he sighed with relief when he noticed a grin on Bonnie's face.

She rushed into the bathroom, her white robe flailing around her. Caroline, Stefan and Jeremy exchanged uncertain looks.

"Look!" Bonnie exclaimed, coming back into the room with a variety of toiletries in her arms.

She placed all of the items on the sill and then ran to the far end of the room, giving Jeremy an endearingly gleeful look.

Jeremy smiled, even though he still wasn't sure what was going on and if he should rejoice or worry. He followed Bonnie's gaze that was fixed on the soap bars and shampoo bottles... that suddenly began floating in the air.

Bonnie laughed at everyone's stunned, happy reaction when she transported all of the items to different parts of the room.

"That's wonderful!" Caroline clapped her hands. "Do you want to see that chapter with swapping spells from Klaus already?" Caroline asked with a smile, receiving a death glare from Jeremy.

Stefan winced, stifling a chuckle.

"Really?!" Jeremy asked, rolling his eyes.

Caroline pursed her lips in an innocent expression and shrugged.

"I don't think I'll be able to make much sense of it any time soon," Bonnie said a little dejectedly. "I looked into those grimoires and I hardly understood a word."

"Yes, but you could try," Caroline insisted with an encouraging smile, deciding that Bonnie's attitude warranted ignoring Jeremy. "I'm sure it was the same way the first time around and you figured it all out somehow."

"Bonnie's grandmother was there for her, helping her," Jeremy observed, directing another pointed look at Caroline.

"Well, from what I know, Bonnie figured lots of these things on her own," Caroline stated firmly. "And wouldn't it be awesome if we could go back home, real home, already?"

"Caroline!" Jeremy widened his eyes at her in incredulous indignation, even though she seemed honestly unaware of the fact that she was precariously close to emotional blackmailing.

"I still don't know if I actually want to do any of that," Bonnie said with a small sigh before she turned on her heels and headed for the door to go back to her room.

Before Jeremy made to follow Bonnie, he gave Caroline a meaningful look to which she responded with an exasperated huff.

"Is this really so bad that I just want things to be the way they were before?" Caroline asked, sitting down on the couch next to Stefan.

He opened his mouth to reply, but then his phone rang.

xxxdelenaxxx

"This is creepy," Alaric muttered, giving a full glass of blood in front of him a wary look before shifting his eyes to Elena who was sitting across from him at the table, looking equally put off by a waitress serving them her own blood.

"Biting her on her way out of here after her shift would be less creepy, I'm taking?" Enzo inquired, shifting his eyes between Elena and Alaric who was sitting next to him.

"Blood bags would be less creepy," Alaric offered flatly, squinting.

"Right," Enzo grunted, gulping down half of the contents of his glass. "Because there's such a plenitude of blood in hospitals. Probably that's why they keep begging people to donate some."

Alaric snorted sourly. "And of course you care a lot about prospective patients in need of transfusion."

"Could we perhaps talk about something else?" Elena interrupted cautiously, glancing at Damon and lacing her hand through his arm. "Or at least stop arguing," she added under her breath, as so far at least five different topics led to Enzo and Alaric engaging in back-and-forth exchanges.

"Elena, do you like this song?" Damon suddenly asked, when one song had ended and another began. He glanced toward the dance floor and then looked at Elena.

Elena rested her chin on his shoulder and listened to the song for a few seconds, trying to recognize it. Damon was about to ask her to dance, but before he had a chance to do so, Elena shook her head.

"Not particularly."

"But you like Bon Jovi?" Damon asked, but then almost regretted the question, wondering if he hadn't just made a blunder of some sort.

To his relief, however, Elena smiled. "No, I don't," she said softly, looking up at him with a glimpse of understanding in her eyes. "But... Stefan does."

Damon blinked and then nodded slowly.

"Speaking of, why don't we call Stefan?" Alaric proposed and Enzo rolled his eyes.

"Hi."

Everyone's eyes shifted to the end of the table where Stefan suddenly appeared, a slightly sheepish expression on his face.

"I already did," Elena said with a faint smile, giving Enzo back his phone that she had kept with her since leaving the abandoned building.

Enzo groaned under his breath. "Just when I was beginning to hope this was going to be a nice evening," he muttered with exaggerated annoyance, leaning back in his seat and shifting his eyes to Damon. "He killed me, by the way," he added, pointing to Stefan.

"That's a slightly overdramatic retelling of events," Alaric observed wryly.

Enzo extended his arms in a hopeless gesture manifesting that he was merely stating the simple fact.

"Alright," Elena said, standing up. "Alaric and I will drive Enzo home and we'll see you back at the hotel in a couple of hours," she said, looking between Damon and Stefan and glancing at Alaric who nodded, quickly getting on board with the plan.

"How about my opinion?" Enzo asked in mock-astonishment, nonetheless rising to his feet, even though he was strangely certain _"going home"_ was a euphemism for _"going back into the lion's den to ruin his meticulously designed plan by making him risk his life to rescue some random chick out of Dr. August's basement."_ And the most perplexing part of that was that he was probably going to do it.

Damon looked between everyone, but before he had a chance to express any opinion concerning this entire arrangement, Elena wrapped her arms around him and whispered into his ear. "I think you should talk."

"Alright," Damon whispered back into her ear and hugged her tightly, pressing a warm, lingering kiss to her cheek before letting her to step back.

Elena squeezed his hands in a reassuring gesture. "Don't do anything crazy, OK?" She said, giving Stefan a serious look.

Stefan nodded and Damon raised his eyebrows, giving him a questioning look when Elena, Alaric and Enzo had walked out of the bar.

"Yeah, let's get the basics straight," Stefan said, turning toward him. "I'm the fun brother."

"OK," Damon said, about to sit down again, but Stefan stopped him.

"Which means we're not going to sit here sulking and brooding all night," Stefan said and only then Damon noticed a glimpse of humor in his eyes.

"So I'm the brooding type," Damon said, squinting, beginning to suspect where this was going.

"Unfortunately," Stefan confirmed matter-of-factly, his eyes laughing. "Brooding, journaling, shaping your hair. That's pretty much all you've ever been good at."

Damon looked away with a weak, lop-sided smile. "I see. Well, _someone_ was being a bully," he said, looking back at Stefan with his eyes narrowed.

Stefan shrugged. "Nah. Not at all, actually," he said sincerely, still smiling in a slightly mischievous manner, but his eyes were now completely serious and filled with deep concern that Damon found both troubling and comforting.

"So where are we going?" Damon asked, when Stefan turned around, motioning for him to follow.

"Down the memory lane," Stefan replied, heading for the door.

Damon sighed under his breath. "Ah. A stroll down the memory lane."

"Did I say a stroll?" Stefan asked, a ghost of a smile he didn't really try to hide flitting across his face. "I was rather thinking about a rollercoaster."


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:** Thank you **so much** for all the awesome reviews! :) :) :)

An anonymous reviewer asked about Klayley, so I just wanted to respond to this here and say that I'm afraid we won't have time to delve much into Klaus' suddenly busy & complicated (yes, that's sarcasm, because I think this is OOC, but that's another story lol) love life. The other reason is that I don't ship Klaus with anyone on _The Originals_... To end on a positive note, however, I'll say that one of my three favorite scenes of S1 was a Klaus/Hayley scene in 1x20 ;)

BTW Since I can't reply to you directly, I just wanted to give a shout-out to all the anonymous reviewers (and also the reviewers who have their PMs blocked ;): thank you **so much** for your support! :)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 14**

"It's a rollercoaster," Damon said evenly, glancing around the dark, empty amusement park with his eyes narrowed.

He wondered if it was because of his vampire past that the nightfall itself seemed to be eliciting a vague impression of memories hovering close, just barely out of reach. Or perhaps he was just thinking in fictional clichés. Then again, when his eyes drifted away to a grainy path leading toward a water ride, he felt as if the shadowy road really reminded him of something._ "So, Damon, tell me. What is it that you want?"_

"Yes, that's what I said," Stefan replied with a shrug. "A rollercoaster down the memory lane."

Damon shifted his eyes to him, trying to keep a straight face. "I thought you meant it as a metaphor."

"Well," Stefan cleared his throat, doing his best not to smile, "I thought a rollercoaster sounded more appealing than a stroll. And..." He paused in an exaggerated manner before continuing, "I also thought that maybe I'd figure out something cooler to do while driving here. But I didn't."

Damon chuckled weakly. "Alright. Let's do that," he said, getting into one of the trains. "Just don't use this as a date idea," he added and Stefan, who was about to go switch the rollercoaster on, stopped in his tracks and turned around.

"Why?" He asked with a small frown, genuinely curious.

"It's creepy," Damon said with a shrug. "Fake, lonely. And it has an apocalyptic vibe to it," he said offhandedly, resting his arm on the back of the seat and glancing up at the night sky above.

Stefan stared at him for a second. "Well, I'll keep that in mind," he said at last with a small grimace, still rather confused by such an interpretation. "Thanks."

Having turned the machinery on, Stefan quickly came back and jumped into the train next to Damon, the rollercoaster already slowly moving forward.

"Close your eyes," Stefan said and Damon stifled a smile.

"Thank you, but I'm not scared," he said, amused.

"That's not my point," Stefan said in all seriousness, pulling the safety bar down. "Caroline read an article online about recovering lost memories by listening to the stories about the past while in motion."

This time stifling a smile didn't work and Damon chuckled out loud.

Stefan smiled, but then frowned noticing that the expression on Damon's face immediately changed, as if his own laughter somehow dismayed him.

"You can't live feeling guilty all the time," Stefan said on an impulse in a hushed, serious tone and Damon's eyes darted to him. "Elena said someone told you about-" he started to explain, but Damon cut him off.

"I know what you're all trying to do and I appreciate it, but-"

"No, I actually think you don't know what we're doing," Stefan interrupted him with a small, mirthless smile and Damon looked at him in grim silence, his eyebrows furrowed. "You think we're trying to tell you that it doesn't matter or that it's OK or that whenever you did something wrong you weren't being yourself and so it doesn't count. But that's not it."

"Isn't it?" Damon asked quietly with a weak, sad smile.

The coaster sped up and Stefan thought that perhaps by "motion", the author of the article didn't mean "55 miles per hour doing upside down loops," because he found himself unable to speak until the ride ended.

"That was fun," Damon said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes and pushed the safety bar up, but before he stood up Stefan continued their interrupted conversation.

"What we're trying to tell you is that that's not the whole truth about you and that you can't make assumptions based on dry facts that you don't even remember." Stefan paused and looked at Damon who was staring straight ahead, his forehead creasing in a pensive grimace. It wasn't very clear if he was waiting for him to stop or to continue, so Stefan decided to do the latter. "Do you want to operate on dry facts? Fine. I killed more people that you've met," Stefan said in a low, slightly strained voice and Damon blinked, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. "Now, what was your first thought when I said that?" Stefan asked and Damon shook his head. He opened his mouth to undoubtedly say something dismissive, so Stefan cut him off and just repeated the question.

"Why," Damon muttered reluctantly. "My first thought was _why_," he said, giving Stefan a mockingly questioning look.

"But somehow that's not what you're asking yourself when thinking about your own actions," Stefan said in a low, but firm voice. "You just take them at face value, not caring about the context."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'm only half-evil," he said with a sardonic grimace. "A reformed villain. Not the only bad person on the entire planet. I get it. So what?" He asked, shifting in his seat and turning his head to look at Stefan, his eyes glimmering challengingly. "What does it change? Those people I killed are still dead. And semi-good or half-exonerated, I'm still messed up and who knows when some other dark secrets will resurface or when I'll lash out or start spiraling out of control or God knows what else. And I can't risk-" He stopped abruptly is mid-sentence and looked away, his jaw clenched.

They were both silent for a while, the night around them just as silent, except for the quiet sounds of cars passing in the distance and a muffled, jingling noise of decorative light bulbs that were hanging over the haunted house entrance, clinking against each other in the wind.

"I said it before," Stefan finally said, breaking the silence, "but... accidentally to the wrong... very wrong person, so perhaps I should repeat it now." Slowly, Damon shifted his eyes back to him. "Ever since the first time I noticed Elena falling for you," Stefan spoke in a low, even voice and Damon's mouth twitched and he looked away, finding it easier to listen with his eyes fixed on an unidentifiable point in space, just like Stefan's were. "I've been waiting for you to screw something up so badly that she'd hate you. So I've been waiting and watching you do all these horrible things and every single time I thought that you'd gone too far, you were there for her. Sometimes in ways better than I ever was. And after awhile I just stopped waiting for you to fail because I liked the person that you'd become and I didn't want to lose that person." Stefan trailed off and drew a breath, squinting into the distance. "So if that's what you're afraid of, then no, don't be," he said, his voice becoming stronger, each next word surprisingly easier to utter than the previous one, as if he had crossed some invisible border, "you're not going to destroy her, because she already saved you and you saved her. You no longer are the person that could destroy her and she no longer is the person that could be destroyed." Stefan stood up and jumped out of the train. "You can't change the past," he said, turning around and waiting for Damon to look at him. "No one can. I would've, for a million reasons," he whispered with a wistful grimace, "but it's not possible. It's not that the past doesn't matter. It's just that the past is the past," Stefan said, wrinkling his forehead, trying to put his thoughts into words as precisely as possible. "You can't be putting it now over the present. The past is not more important than the future. It's not about not feeling guilty or feeling guilty every breathing second. Neither hiding from it nor drowning in it is an answer. It's about dealing with that guilt and drawing conclusions. That's where you are. That's your starting point. Not some darkest night in 1977, but today. That's all that we're trying to say. That you should pick up where you left off, because you've earned it."

Stefan looked at Damon unblinkingly for a longer while, his eyes shining with utmost seriousness and sincerity. Regaining his composure and shaking himself out of the strange, indescribable state he had been in for the last few minutes, Damon at last rose to his feet and stepped out of the train.

"You've lost me half way through that monologue, but don't let this stop you from continuing," Damon said in a mockingly tactful manner, but then after a few heartbeats he felt the grimace on his face fade into a faint smile that did reach his eyes.

With an inward sigh of relief, Stefan smiled back.

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena and Alaric were sitting in the car, waiting for Enzo, who had gone inside Dr. August's house ten minutes ago, to come back.

Shaking his head, Alaric couldn't help thinking that he was doing a really poor job of being the responsible adult here, seeing how he was making pretty much the same mistake for the second time on the same evening. Unless of course worrying about Enzo was a mistake in and of itself.

"I don't trust him," Alaric grunted, his eyes fixed on the porch, a grim expression on his face. "He agreed to that too easily," he added, resting his elbow on the side of the door, absently rubbing his chin with the backs of his fingers.

Elena shrugged. "I think it just proves that the only reason why he came up with that mass-annihilation plan in the first place, was that he felt like he didn't have anything else to live for," she said resolutely, glancing at the clock. She was beginning to feel guilty about this entire endeavor and she just hoped that their plan would work, because if it didn't... Neither Alaric nor she had been invited into the house, so if Enzo didn't come back within a reasonable amount of time they'd really have a problem what to do.

"And now he does?" Alaric asked skeptically, giving Elena a questioning look. "What makes you think so?"

Elena tilted her head to the side, her eyes wandering around the dimly lit street. "We talked and maybe also seeing Damon again made a difference? I don't know. I do know," she continued before Alaric managed to interrupt her, "that he walked in there knowing that should anything happen, we wouldn't be able to rush in and help him."

"That makes it even more suspicious," Alaric observed wryly.

Elena shifted her eyes to him. "I can't say I fully trust him, but... During our car ride to the bar we were talking about the past and... he could've brought up some complicated matters, but he didn't. He was actually being more diplomatic than Caroline," Elena added with a small sigh.

Alaric arched an eyebrow. "Is that difficult?" He asked with exaggerated uncertainty and Elena stifled a smile.

"I'm just saying that his anti-Augustines ideas aside, he didn't do anything wrong so far. He's been through a lot. He likes Damon-"

"Yeah, well, Klaus likes Caroline," Alaric cut in with a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "Do you see where I'm going with this?" He sighed and Elena rolled her eyes with a weak smile.

They were both silent for a few seconds, just staring out of the windshield.

Elena leaned her head against the headrest. "Do you remember-"

"Smoky Mountains," Alaric said and glanced at Elena, returning her smile when she smiled at him in slight surprise that he had immediately guessed what she was thinking about.

"It was a good day," Elena said a little dreamily, but then hastily checked herself, "I mean-"

"Except for Klaus in his murderous mode, Stefan in his martyrish mode, aggressive hybrids in transition..." Alaric trailed off with a wave of his hand.

"Yes," Elena said, closing her eyes with a slightly embarrassed smile. "Except for all that. I just liked how we were being a family in all of this," she added after a pause in a low, thoughtful voice.

"We are a family. For all eternity. And I'm very grateful for that," Alaric said in a matching tone and they exchanged warm smiles. "Especially," he added with a flicker of a smile passing through his face, "that not only do I have two bright kids, but now I also got a classically devious son-in-law as a bonus."

Elena grinned but then they both jumped in their seats when someone knocked on the roof of the car.

"You could've at least been waiting at the ready," Enzo said, a little upset, when Alaric and Elena jumped out of the car. He ushered a half-conscious girl he had been carrying over his shoulder into the backseat and threw a set of car keys to Alaric. "Take the other car," he muttered, shooting Alaric a look before getting into the driver's seat.

Alaric was about to protest, but Elena silenced him with a pleading look and Alaric rolled his eyes and got into the other car while Elena got into the car with Enzo and the girl.

"How did you do it?" Elena asked, glancing worriedly over her shoulder at the girl, whose face was obscured by her long, blond hair, speckled with dried blood and in disarray.

"I knocked, some people opened the door, I shot them all, went in-" Enzo glanced at Elena who narrowed her eyes at him in a small, exasperated smile. Enzo rolled his eyes. "One of the windows was ajar. There was no one downstairs."

Elena opened her mouth to ask something yet, but incoherent, grumbling noises from the backseat drew her attention to the rescued girl.

"You're safe now. Everything is going to be OK," Elena said reassuringly, reaching out to help the girl turn around and sit up as she was apparently trying to do. "We'll take you to a hotel- Rebekah?" Elena's voice rapidly changed from soothing to sharp and Enzo's eyes darted to her.

"You know her?"

"Yeah," Rebekah replied before Elena had a chance to. She grimaced and blinked a few times, trying to get rid of a strange, unpleasant feeling of having salt in her eyes. Literally. Rebekah gritted her teeth at the memory. "I killed her," she muttered, pulling herself to an upright position and leaning her back against the back of the seat. She glanced at her leg that still hurt, even though the wound was almost healed.

"When I was human," Elena clarified, glancing at Enzo.

"You had vampire blood in your system," Rebekah pointed out, pursing her lips.

"You didn't know that," Elena said with a wry smile.

Rebekah shrugged.

"Should we drive her back?" Enzo asked in a stage-whisper, leaning toward Elena.

Elena stifled a smile. "No," she said with a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm over it."

"Rebekah?" Enzo squinted into the distance. "As in Klaus' sister?"

Rebekah shifted her eyes from her leg to him, a grimace of pain swiftly turning into a grimace of irritation. "No. Rebekah as in Rebekah," she said, annoyed. "And who are you? Elena Gilbert's worshiper no.8?"

Enzo glanced at Elena, an amused smirk flitting across his face.

"Really?" Elena shook her head with a humorless snort. "We just saved your life. Maybe you could afford being polite for five minutes."

"I'm Enzo," Enzo cut in, before Rebekah had a chance to retort. "As in Lorenzo. But my friends call me Enzo," he added, giving her a narrowed-eyed look over his shoulder.

Rebekah gave him a thin smile. "Cute," she said flatly.

"All I meant to clarify through my question," Enzo continued, "was whether you were an Original."

"I am," Rebekah snapped, tossing her hair behind her shoulders. "Do you want an autograph?"

Enzo smiled briefly. "No. I want to know how one crazy human doctor could capture an Original vampire?" He asked, his tone turning serious.

Elena's eyes darted to him, a frown flickering across her face at the realization that his question was in fact a very valid one.

"Well, obviously he couldn't," Rebekah said, annoyed, hissing a little when her leg accidentally brushed against the back of one of the front seats. "They've been tracking me for a long time and they certainly weren't human."

"What?" Elena and Enzo asked almost at the same time, exchanging slightly confused, grim looks.

"Wait." Elena shifted in her seat, turning toward Rebekah. "How do you know they weren't human? You were captured by the Augustines. They most certainly aren't vampires. This makes no sense." She grimaced, glancing at Enzo.

"I didn't say they were vampires," Rebekah said. "Well. They probably were, judging from the speed and strength. But... they were more than that."

"Now this is making even less sense," Elena said with a frown. "Are you saying they have vampires working for them? Why would any vampires work for an organization that's trying to obliterate the entire vampire race?"

"And you what, attended their founding meeting that you know for sure what they're doing?" Rebekah asked, arching an eyebrow. "When I was there I heard a few things," she added, leaning forward and propping her elbows on Elena's and Enzo's seats, the pain in her leg and in her eyes subsiding, the tension in all of her muscles ebbing away. "I could either focus on pain or on gathering information," she added hollowly with a vacant look that disappeared when she blinked. Enzo glanced at her in the mirror. Elena was also looking at her in silence. "Maybe they do want to get rid of vampires, like you say," she continued, resuming a more energetic tone of voice. "But maybe just because they want to take over our place."

"In what sense?" Elena asked, perplexed.

"Replace regular vampires with... super-vampires," Rebekah replied and Elena gave her a long look to double-check that she wasn't joking. "I'm not making that up," Rebekah said, irritated. "They discovered that if you die with more than just one kind of vampire blood in your system, you become something more than just a regular vampire," she said and both Elena and Enzo began listening to her more intently. "They already created those kind of vampires. Apparently, the more different types of blood, the more power. They can also control those vampires, I don't how, but they can."

"But they hate vampires," Elena repeated, still confused as to how what Rebekah was saying could possibly be true.

"They hate vampires who kill innocent humans," Rebekah said sardonically. "Not slave-like, robot-like vampires who kill other vampires."

"I'm glad we've arrived at this conclusion," Enzo said after a moment of complete silence that fell in the car. Elena and Rebekah shot him questioning looks. "That Enzo was right from the beginning," Enzo said with a mocking smile.

"About what?" Rebekah asked with a frown, raising an eyebrow.

"That we should just blow them all up. Obliterate the Augustines before they obliterate us," Enzo said, holding Elena's gaze for a second, his eyes completely serious. Elena shook her head with a grimace.

"I agree with that," Rebekah said with a shrug. "I'm in."

Enzo looked at her over his shoulder. "And just like that, you can call me Enzo."

Rebekah bit back a smile.

"Well, actually, nothing's changed. _That_ is still a bad idea," Elena said, giving Enzo a pointed look.

"So how do we do that?" Rebekah asked, ignoring Elena. "Do you have a phone?" She suddenly asked with a hint of anxiety in her tone, having checked her pockets and not finding anything in them.

"Your niece is OK," Elena said in a low voice, glancing fleetingly at Rebekah over shoulder. "Unless you wanted to book a manicure," she added, turning her gaze toward the window.

"You're not really good at sarcasm, you know," Rebekah said sharply, looking at Elena for a few moments in silence before adding under her breath, her tone serious and sincere. "Thank you."

xxxdelenaxxx

The after-hours visit to the amusement park had passed in a rather gloomy atmosphere, despite Stefan trying to lighten the mood by switching to telling childhood stories of the rare, amusing sort. Unfortunately, while he could tell Damon wasn't exactly _not_ enjoying hearing about being chased off the strawberry field with a spork, choking on the flour or getting stuck in a Christmas tree, he seemed stubbornly determined to hear about the less pleasant events.

And for better or worse, it wasn't like he had an enormous amount of stories to tell, Stefan realized with a sense of bleak wonder. He was surprised how little he knew, now that he tried to recall everything in the chronological order. After their falling out in 1864 it was almost fifty years before they had seen seen each other again in 1912. Then another thirty years until their meeting in New Orleans... and he still wasn't quite sure what had happened then, why Damon hadn't shown up on that train station. Perhaps that was what he should've asked him about instead of chattering about the sire bond for the whole time the last time they were there.

"A traumatic year, I'm guessing?"

Stefan blinked and straightened up, giving Damon a slightly befuddled look.

"1942," Damon said, squinting. "You fell silent for..." he glanced at Stefan's watch, "nine minutes," he said with a faint half-smile, glancing around the dark street. Somehow everything Stefan was saying was evoking quite vivid images in his head, as if he was not just listening to him, but _remembering_. Although that was perhaps more wishful thinking than anything, because all he could see was exactly what Stefan was saying, nothing more. Still, the images _felt_ real and it seemed that he was making out the details, like colors and scents on his own, even though of course he could just be making it all up and he didn't think it made sense to waste time on confirming whether a library door was brown or black.

Stefan shook his head, quickly pulling himself out of his reverie. "No. I mean, yes, it was. It was... war, after all, but... It's just that I realized how many years we've really been apart. I didn't even know about you being captured by the Augustines until a few months ago. I didn't know lots of things," he added slowly, looking away.

"Considering the gaps, I'd say that's probably true about both of us," Damon observed after a pause when they stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down at the football field below.

Stefan suppressed a smile, averting his eyes to the ground.

"What?" Damon asked, eying him suspiciously, a flicker of a smile flitting across his face.

"It's nothing, really," Stefan said with a pensive smile. "It's just that you're very much like you'd been before we turned and it just feels a bit odd, after all these years. And I don't mean that you've changed that much," he amended with a small grimace. "I mean that at some point we stopped saying things out loud and somehow, maybe because of that we stopped hearing them."

"That actually makes sense," Damon observed cautiously and Stefan laughed briefly under his breath.

"No, I think sometimes it's just easier not to read between the lines, not to look at what happens through other people's eyes," Stefan said and after a moment of silence they started walking down the stairs again.

"Could you punch me?" Damon asked when they stepped onto the dark grass of the dimly lit field. "Is that so shocking? You mean you've never punched me before?" He raised his eyebrows at the comically puzzled expression on Stefan's face.

"Well, it happened," Stefan admitted. "A few times." He looked at Damon for a second with his eyes narrowed and then asked, biting back a smile. "You don't actually think a punch in the face will bring your memories back?"

"Who knows? Why not give it a shot?" Damon asked, extending his arms in a shrug.

Stefan shook his head, still finding the idea as ridiculous as amusing, but conceding nonetheless. Damon stumbled backwards a little when he punched him.

"Did it work?" Stefan asked, looking at him expectantly.

Damon ran his hand over his jaw. "Yes," he said with a brief grimace. "Now I don't need dental insurance anymore."

Stefan chuckled. "I told you it wouldn't work."

He turned around and smiled at the sight of a football lying on the ground. "Lucky us," he said, picking up the ball and tossing it to Damon who caught it and blinked, momentarily startled by a shred of an image flashing across his mind. A large white house... blindingly green grass... that silly hat...

"Come on," Stefan prompted, waiting for the ball and Damon threw it to him with a smile and then took a few hasty steps backwards when Stefan started charging forward.

The field was only dimly lit and so when Damon fell, his foot getting tangled in some wires near the crash barrier, Stefan didn't really see, only heard a muted, jarring noise when Damon's head hit a metal post. He was about to make a joke about clumsy humans, but his breath caught in his throat when he noticed that Damon wasn't getting up. He zoomed to him and when he leaned down, he saw blood oozing out of the back of Damon's head.

"Damon!" Stefan's eyes wandered all over Damon's face, rising panic fighting a flicker of hope that this was only a stupid practical joke. But the blood was real enough and Stefan felt cold shivers ran up his spine. He ripped his wrist open and pressed it to Damon's mouth, telling himself that it just wasn't possible for such a silly accident to-

Damon's face twitched and Stefan sighed with relief, even though he could tell that Damon hadn't drunk any blood and actually began coughing it up, seemingly choking on it, as if he just wasn't able to swallow any.

"You should drink some," Stefan insisted in a worried tone when Damon seemed to fully regain his consciousness. "Just in case. You may have a concussion."

Damon's eyes blinked open and he did try to drink, but then pushed Stefan's hand away with a grimace. "I can't," he whispered through his teeth, a deep frown appearing on his face.

"Why?" Stefan asked automatically, the first thought that came to his mind being that Damon didn't want to drink vampire blood, but then Damon continued:

"They injected me with something." He drew a breath and leaned his head against the pole behind him. "A vaccine against becoming a vampire," Damon said dejectedly, his eyes grim.

Stefan's eyes widened in bafflement. "What?"

"I can't be turned into a vampire," Damon said tonelessly, closing his eyes for a second before opening them again, looking up at the stars above and scanning the football field with unseeing eyes.

The sky was clear, tinted with a shade of blue. Blue. For a second his surroundings flickered like a broken movie screen and everything was bright, so very, very bright and blue before the colors returned to normal.

Damon froze, took a sharp intake of breath and held it, trying to get hold of jumbled thoughts blurring across his mind, tugging on every inch of his body as if he was suddenly overpowered by a burning fever.

"_No, Damon, no! Absolutely not!"_

Stefan slumped down onto the grass across from Damon. "It doesn't sound like it was your decision," he said, studying Damon's face with anxious intensity, conflicting thoughts clashing in his head. It wasn't exactly bad news and yet, at the same time, it was probably the most horrible news, especially from Damon's current perspective.

"_You lied to me."_

"I didn't," Damon whispered almost inaudibly, a feverish smile flitting across his face, before it turned into an incredulous grimace. He blinked a few times and shuddered, as if he was trying to shake off some strange feeling. "It wasn't," he mechanically answered Stefan's question without even consciously acknowledging it.

"Does Elena know?" Stefan continued asking, only after a second noticing that Damon's mind seemed to have wandered elsewhere.

All of a sudden, Damon looked pale, his eyes visibly ablaze. He quickly rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand and then looked around again, his breathing becoming audibly uneven.

"Damon?"

Damon's eyes darted to Stefan and for a moment he stared at him as if he was looking at a ghost. "Sheila..." he whispered at last, laboriously, as if the name was difficult to pronounce. He frowned and his breath hitched in his throat.

Slowly, Stefan narrowed his eyes at him. "You're not funny," he said slowly, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. He really hoped the night wouldn't end with them rushing to the ER and him explaining to Elena how Damon got a concussion, but it was becoming apparent that such a turn of events was unavoidable.

"No," Damon muttered, shaking his head. "Sheila... She brought us back."

Stefan blinked and then it suddenly dawned on him of whom Damon might be talking about. "Bonnie's grandmother? She brought you back from the Other Side? You remember that?" He asked with a hopeful smile, his eyes lighting up at the happy thought that they'd return to everyone with such an important memory recovered.

"No," Damon murmured absently.

Stefan's eyebrows knitted in renewed confusion. "No?"

"I don't remember that," Damon whispered, blinking rapidly and sitting up a little straighter. He kept narrowing and widening his eyes and Stefan began to think that he should just call an ambulance instead of engaging in a pointless discussion, but then Damon amended. "I don't remember _just_ that," he said and Stefan froze, struck by a strange note in Damon's voice. Glancing up at the sky and then shifting his eyes back to Stefan, Damon whispered in an electrifyingly careful voice. "I remember everything."


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** Thank you SO MUCH for all the beautiful reviews! :):):)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 15**

Bonnie was rather grateful that she could leave, even if only for a few minutes, the room where all the grimoires were. They were making her feel simultaneously curious, anxious and guilty and she just didn't feel like sorting out all these emotions at midnight... which was probably an excuse as good as any, but she wasn't going to dwell on that right now either.

Caroline had called an "emergency meeting" and as Bonnie walked in and sat down among everyone, with an inward sigh of amazement she realized that just one day ago she hadn't known any of these people and now she was here with them feeling-

Scooting deeper into the couch, Bonnie stared at an invisible point in space. That was precisely her main problem at the moment. She wasn't sure what she was feeling. It was all so very confusing. And what was especially confusing was that she didn't know if she'd actually prefer knowing exactly what was going on to feeling confused. Because there was an odd sense of safety to confusion. It was like a safe hiding place and she was still in the process of trying to figure out if she really wanted to leave it.

"It's a good plan," Rebekah said with a shrug, leaning against the window and taking a sip from her drink. "Too bad it relies on something unreliable." She tilted her head to the side, shifting her eyes from Enzo to Bonnie who, lost in thought, didn't even notice that.

"You're the one living in a city full of witches," Jeremy pointed out, narrowing his eyes at Rebekah, annoyed by everyone talking about Bonnie as if she was both: an all-important personification of magic and a nuisance for currently not having it. "Why don't you take Enzo to New Orleans and you can spend the rest of your lives plotting murder schemes together."

"That is not a good idea," Caroline observed cautiously, shooting Jeremy an incredulous grimace. "The question is not who should do it and how, but rather whether we should do it at all."

"How is that a question?" Enzo asked in a pretendedly bored tone. He sat back in his chair and placed his feet on the coffee table, crossing one over the other. "You're just going to go home and wait for them to hunt you down one by one?" He slowly shifted his eyes between Rebekah, Jeremy, Bonnie, Alaric and Caroline.

Jeremy looked at him with a grim frown on his face, one particular thought, unrelated to worrying about their well-being, secretly keeping him from completely discarding Enzo's plan just yet. Ever since Dr. August had hinted at Jeremy's and Elena's father quitting the Augustine research, Jeremy couldn't stop wondering if that could've had something to do with their parents' accident. And while he certainly wasn't going to dive into any revenge schemes, he did want to know the truth.

"Well, first of all, we can't really go home," Caroline observed dryly with a sour smile.

"Caroline." Jeremy gave her a warning look, glancing at Bonnie.

Caroline huffed in exasperation and rose to her feet. She was beginning to get really, really tired of Jeremy glaring at her every time she'd mention Mystic Falls, the Travelers' spell, Klaus or magic. It wasn't her fault that these were the things their lives consisted of.

"Maybe we should just ask Bonnie if she feels emotionally abused by me talking about the things that concern us all?" Caroline blurted out, crossing her arms over her chest.

Bonnie shuddered and straightened up, the sound of Caroline's agitated voice shaking her out of her reverie.

"I don't feel abused," Bonnie deadpanned with a sigh. "I feel... confused. Either way, I can't actually do anything, so does it even matter?"

"Even if Bonnie had her magic, she wouldn't help you with something like that," Jeremy said vehemently. "And by the way, you didn't even apologize to her for lying to her and telling her that she was a member of some murderous squad," Jeremy scoffed, sending a glare Enzo's way.

Bonnie propped her head on her elbow, raising her eyebrows at Enzo and actually interested in what he was going to say. She didn't quite understand how they had moved from Enzo kidnapping her and shooting Elena with a poison, an apparently fake one at that, but still – to chatting with him in a hotel room at midnight. If that was a sample of how her life had been like, then indeed it might've been better to stay away from this craziness for as long as possible.

"I was just trying to make her feel like she belonged somewhere," Enzo said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes and although Jeremy's reaction was an annoyed snort, Bonnie was under the impression that, bizarrely, there was a grain of truth in Enzo's answer... even if it didn't necessarily have much to do with her.

"I think we're wasting time deriding a plan that's not even possible to work," Alaric observed matter-of-factly, after listening to the conversation in silence for a longer while.

Bonnie inwardly flinched and her own reaction baffled her a little. It was as if the simple remark had insulted her somehow. _"I can do this!"_

"I think you're getting it all wrong," Enzo muttered in a gritty, slightly impatient tone. "This plan doesn't rely on magic. I just thought magic could speed it up, but since it apparently can't, then I'm just switching back to the original version. It's not that big of a deal, really. I wasn't looking for opinionated minions to begin with. I accidentally ran into you and you just kind of invited yourselves to this discussion, not the other way around."

Rebekah was watching Enzo from her spot by the window while Caroline rolled her eyes, glancing at Jeremy who seemed both upset and yet curiously pensive. Alaric glanced at Enzo, tempted to ask about the details of "the original plan", but somehow not feeling like ridiculing the idea, if only because there was something about Enzo's tone that, for all his smugness, was rendering his determination pitiable rather than irritating.

Caroline opened her mouth to speak, but then the door opened and Stefan and Damon walked inside.

"Damon!" Bonnie jumped to her feet and to everyone's stunned amusement, she ran to him and throwing her arms around his neck, gave him a heartfelt hug that Damon returned with a trace of reluctance that only Stefan noticed. "I was worried about you! Are you OK?" Bonnie asked, drawing back.

Damon looked at her, all the memories clashing together and he couldn't immediately decide if the last three months were making this particular moment more or less difficult. When they'd died they'd been far away from the war zone for quite some time already. But they'd probably been just as far from the close friendship of the last three months either.

"I'm fine, Bonnie. You?" Damon asked with a small smile, feeling strangely regretful that this friendship might end once Bonnie remembered the past.

He glanced around the room, marveling inwardly at how different everything seemed. On the one hand, it was so much easier, being able to recognize everyone and remember everything, but on the other hand there was also something perturbing about it.

He held his breath, expecting to meet Elena's gaze any moment, but after scanning the room a few times, with a pang of worry he realized that she wasn't here.

"I need to talk to someone I know," Bonnie whispered, leaning toward Damon, her eyes laughing, although there was also a note of sincere desperation in her voice.

Stefan looked away, stifling a smile.

"Sure," Damon said in a slightly strained voice, smiling briefly and wondering if he should tell Bonnie the truth right away. He wanted to tell Elena first, but it just didn't seem right to let Bonnie rant about her fears and feelings without giving her a heads-up that she essentially _might_ be hating him. "Where is Elena?" Damon asked when Bonnie turned toward the door.

"She went to the lobby to get the rooms for Enzo and Rebekah. It's getting a little crowded here," Caroline said with a thin smile.

Damon glanced at Alaric who smiled and at Enzo who tilted his head to the side and squinted, apparently noticing Damon's changed demeanor. Even Jeremy seemed to be noticing something and Damon thought that perhaps walking out of here was a good idea, because in a few minutes everyone would figure out what had happened and then Elena would end up being the last to know.

Damon's eyes darted to Stefan when Bonnie grabbed his hand, heading for the door. Stefan shook his head and nodded, signaling some kind of understanding of whatever Damon was going to say and Jeremy wondered what was going on, his suspicion being promptly voiced by Caroline when the door closed behind Damon and Bonnie.

"What was that about?" She asked, squinting.

"Nothing," Stefan shrugged, after a moment of hesitation opting for avoiding an answer altogether rather than attempting to wordlessly communicate the situation to Caroline. After all, this wasn't going to be a drawn-out secret anyway. It was just going to be a secret kept long enough for Elena to hear the news from Damon, not from Caroline. "That's a surprise visit," Stefan said, shifting his eyes to Rebekah.

"A pleasant surprise, I'm sure," Rebekah said with a sardonic half-smile and Stefan chuckled weakly under his breath, which annoyed Caroline enough to take her mind off analyzing Damon and Stefan's wordless exchanges.

"I have good news and bad news," Elena said, walking energetically into the room and stopping abruptly in her tracks at the sight of Stefan.

She quickly whirled on her heels, looking around the room, but the smile on her face faded a little when she didn't see Damon anywhere.

"Bonnie and Damon went to our room to talk," Jeremy said, before Elena had the time to start worrying about Damon's absence.

"Oh, OK," she said, giving Jeremy a smile.

"Bad news first," Caroline said with a sigh, causing Elena's eyes to dart to her.

Elena grimaced slightly. "There are no rooms available."

"How come?" Caroline asked with a childish frown, widening her eyes at her.

"Apparently, there is a wedding and two conferences this weekend. They said tonight and tomorrow night every single room is booked," Elena explained with a small sigh.

"What's the good news?" Alaric asked, arching an eyebrow.

Elena bit back a smile. "They gave us vouchers for cotton candy," she said, lightly waving the vouchers for everyone to see.

"Hilarious," Caroline muttered grimly.

"There are two beds in my room," Alaric said. "So if-"

"Great. Can I have the key?" Rebekah asked, walking up to him. "I'm sorry, but I think I'll call it a night, since I'm a little tired after three days of being sliced and stabbed all over," she said with a hint of anger in her voice, a sour smile flitting across her face as she looked fleetingly at everyone before snatching the card key out of Alaric's hand and marching toward the door.

Alaric rose to his feet, remembering that he had quite a few weapons in his room and he'd rather not have someone who had killed him once before, rummage through them. "Well, it's late already anyway. I think we've had enough entertainment for one day. We should talk about everything tomorrow."

"We should leave tomorrow," Jeremy said and Alaric gave him a speculative nod, somewhat agreeing with him.

When Alaric and Rebekah left, Elena's and Jeremy's eyes suddenly met and they exchanged stifled smiles at their silent understanding.

"Wow!" Jeremy jumped to his feet. "It really is late," he said, glancing at the clock, the dismay in his voice so fake that Elena found it difficult not to laugh.

"Yes, it is," Elena confirmed zealously. "We'll see you tomorrow!" She said hurriedly and then she and Jeremy left the room with great haste.

Caroline looked after them in confusion, but only until she realized that the only person left in her and Stefan's room beside them was Enzo, who waved Elena and Jeremy a good night and didn't look like he was going anywhere.

She was about to say that it was late and that he should go to... wherever place he was living in in this town, because he surely must've been living somewhere, but then Enzo rose to his feet on his own and Caroline almost smiled, pleasantly surprised that he was going to leave without being prompted to do so-

But then, instead of exiting the room, Enzo plopped himself onto one of the beds and reached out for the remote control.

"What are you doing?!" Caroline asked with an incredulous frown, glancing at Stefan who unfortunately seemed either too exhausted or temporarily too immersed in his own thoughts to join in the outrage. "You are Damon's friend! Go to Damon and Elena's room!" She said in the most commanding tone she could muster.

"Now, I wouldn't be a very good friend if I actually did that, would I?" Enzo observed with a hint of amusement in his voice, flipping through the channels. "Besides," he said, shifting his eyes from the screen to Caroline and slowly looking her up and down," I like the view here better," he said with a wink.

Caroline glared at him before whirling around and heading for the balcony. Stefan gave Enzo a long, pointed look that Enzo completely ignored before he went to follow Caroline.

"Why do I always end up being stalked by psychopaths?!" Caroline exclaimed in indignation when Stefan closed the balcony door behind them. She leaned over the banister with an exasperated huff.

Biting back a smile, Stefan moved to stand right next to her, mirroring her pose. "I _may_ be the wrong person to ask," he observed cautiously.

Caroline's eyes darted to him and she laughed briefly before averting her eyes from him and looking around the town illuminated by the scattered, colorful lights. "I used to wonder why that whole Klaus thing was making me so angry," Caroline said on an impulse, struck by the thought that lately felt to her both irrelevant and yet not really. Stefan looked at her out of the corner of his eye, clasping his hands over the banister. "Until one day I realized that I wasn't angry just because I was feeling something for him." Caroline drew a breath and propped her chin on her hands, looking around with half-lidded eyes. "I was angry, because the main reason why I was feeling something for him was that he was the only person for whom I wasn't a second choice."

Stefan blinked, flabbergasted, not expecting that kind of conclusion to Caroline's speech at all. "Caroline, you're not a second choice," he said with a frown, straightening up and turning toward her, not sure why it seemed to him that she wasn't just talking about some ancient past and hoping that he was just reading the expression on her face wrong.

But to his further befuddlement, Caroline shrugged. "I'm over it. It doesn't bother me anymore," she said, glancing at him with a small smile and rolling her eyes when he looked at her as if he completely didn't understand what she was talking about. "Oh, come on, Stefan," she said, turning away from the banister to face him. "Work was always a _little_ bit more important to my mom than I was. I could probably make a full list of things that were more important than me to my father. Elena and Bonnie has always been _slightly_ _more_ _best_ friends. Then there was Matt and his lingering feelings and Tyler and his pack or Tyler and his revenge or Tyler and whatever else was more important than me at the moment. And... We both know we wouldn't be having this conversation right now if Elena didn't break up with you," Caroline added in a quiet, but firm voice, her dismissive smile not quite reaching her eyes.

Stefan widened his eyes at her and then shook his head with a grimace. "Yes, and if a meteorite didn't hit the earth, dinosaurs would be having this conversation right now instead of us. Caroline." He grasped her arms, his eyes boring into hers with utmost sincerity. "You're not anyone's second choice. You are the most vivacious, gregarious, precocious person I've ever met." Caroline snorted, but didn't interrupt him and Stefan continued, following the suspicion that had just dawned on him. "I'm sorry if you didn't feel that it's what I think. These last few months... I was... I'm sorry if you felt that I was being distant. I just didn't want you to think that I was treating you like a distraction. All I could think about was what had happened with Damon and Bonnie and I just didn't feel it was the right time to... change things between us, to..." He trailed off, noticing a glimpse in Caroline's eyes that told him that she believed him.

He smiled and then after holding her gaze for a few seconds he leaned down and kissed her.

"Does that mean you weren't hanging out with me just because I was the only sane person around?" Caroline asked a little breathlessly when they drew apart, trying to keep her voice and expression serious.

Stefan's eyebrows furrowed in thought and he bit his lip and looked at her as if he was preparing to say something difficult. "Caroline, I love you, but I'm afraid I can't say you ever are the most sane person around."

Caroline laughed briefly, but then she froze, her eyes widening in amazement. "What did you say?" She asked in a hushed voice, her lips barely moving as she spoke.

Stefan's mouth twitched, but he managed to keep a straight face. "That I'm afraid I can't say you ever are-" He started repeating the second part of his sentence and Caroline smacked him playfully on the shoulder.

"OK. First of all..." she said with a clap of her hands and thrusting up her chin, she dashed out of the balcony.

Stefan wrinkled his forehead and followed her, wondering what she was up to.

"Enough of this. I don't care where you'll go. You just need to-" Caroline stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, her hands suspended in the air as she looked down at Enzo, having suddenly noticed that he was, or at least seemed to be asleep. "Hey," she said sharply, but Enzo didn't even stir, although his face was contorted in some kind of a tense grimace, his hands rolled up into fists, his knuckles completely white and he was gritting his teeth in his sleep that he apparently wasn't faking.

Thrown a little off guard by the sight, Caroline sighed and frowned, glancing at Stefan and after a moment of silent consideration, without even exchanging as much as a nod they both walked up closer toward the bed.

Caroline slid the remote-control from under Enzo's hand and turned the TV off. She then gathered from the bed a few things Enzo must've taken out of the mini-bar and put them away while Stefan tugged off Enzo's shoes and dropped them on the floor. They grabbed a blanket from the armchair and draped it over Enzo and after tossing one of the pillows on the couch, Stefan turned off the night-lamp, leaving the room illuminated only by the faint light coming from the small corridor.

Caroline shook her head with a weak, soundless snort, before mouthing to Stefan that she was going to go take a shower.

When she disappeared into the bathroom, Stefan went over to the couch, slumped down onto it and looked at Enzo with a pensive frown, wondering about all those other people's nightmares he knew so little about.

xxxdelenaxxx

"So on the one hand, this is really intriguing and sounds like tons of fun, but on the other, it's apparently not fun at all." Bonnie shook he head with a mirthless chuckle. "I even asked Jeremy what would old me do and he wasn't able to tell!" She sighed, glancing between the grimoires and Damon. "I mean, he said that I'd _probably_ want my magic back, but he also said that he could imagine me not wanting it back. I really like him, by the way," she blurted out and then stifled a smile, trying to resume a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "He's being really sincere. Like _really_ sincere. He's trying to be more honest than I think it's even possible, not only telling me about everything that happened, but also trying to recall what I was saying and how he thinks I was feeling about everything-" Bonnie trailed off, but only because she was running out of breath. However before she continued, her eyes lingered on Damon's face and it suddenly occurred to her that he was being unusually quiet while she had been prattling cheerfully for at least ten minutes without a pause. "Are you sure you're OK?" Bonnie asked, stopping her vibrant monologue and arching an eyebrow at Damon who was sitting next to her on the bed just a little too stiffly, another thing she suddenly noticed that puzzled her.

"I heard every word," Damon said, narrowing his eyes in a faint, lop-sided smile, countering what he suspected was Bonnie's way of pointing out to him that she thought he wasn't paying attention. "Maybe you should just give yourself more time to figure out how you feel and if you want to be a witch again."

Bonnie looked at him in silence for a few moments before she turned more toward him, drew up her legs and sat cross-legged on the bed, facing him. "Nice try, but you didn't answer my question. Are you OK?" She asked, giving him a mockingly pointed look. "How did it go? Hanging out with your brother?" She continued with the questions, trying to guess what could be the reason behind Damon's changed demeanor. She'd say he was acting timid if she didn't know better. "Jeremy said-"

"I got my memories back," Damon blurted out and Bonnie's eyes widened in shock.

"What?" She exclaimed, blinking. "And you're telling me about it now?!"

"I can tell you tomorrow," Damon offered, leaning forward, as if he was about to get up.

Bonnie pulled him back down with a brief laugh. "How? When? You mean you remember _everything_?" She asked excitedly.

Damon squinted into the distance. "I'm still missing the details of those five days at uncle Ralph's farm in Kentucky when I was four," he said in such a solemn voice that it took Bonnie a second to realize he was joking.

"Stop it!" She said, grabbing a pillow and hitting him with it. "Come on! Tell me everything!" She tugged on his hand, almost bouncing off the bed. "How did we get here? What happened?"

"First of all," Damon said, wincing a little, "you don't like me as much as you think you do, just so you know."

Bonnie put a pretendedly dismayed expression on her face. "I _knew_ it," she said, shaking her head in indignation, but then burst out laughing. "Tell me about how we came back to life!" She said urgently, rolling her eyes at him, completely unconcerned about the revelation and Damon wondered if she had even taken it seriously at all.

"Your grandmother made it happen, somehow," Damon said, his forehead wrinkling in thought. "The price for coming back was that we wouldn't remember the past."

"But why did we come back _here_?" Bonnie asked with a small frown after a moment of consideration. "Why not somewhere else?" She clarified her question. "There must be a reason why, of all the places on earth, we landed in this particular town."

Damon looked at her in silence, pondering this. "It could just be an accident," he said tentatively after a pause.

"An accident?" Bonnie echoed dubiously, shaking her head. "Not with that anti-vampire organization around the corner, Dr. August knowing Jeremy and Elena's dad, that Enzo guy being here. Too many coincidences," she muttered, glancing away and Damon followed her gaze to the grimoires that were laying scattered on the bed.

He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but then he seemed to change his mind. Bonnie, however, noticed a wistful look that flashed in his eyes and she bit her lip, trying to think about a question that could reveal what he was thinking about, because she suspected that for whatever reason he wasn't just going to tell her.

"What else happened? You should be elated that you got your memories back!" Bonnie said, giving him a thoughtful look. "Even if they aren't all good. Something else must've happened. And I'm not letting you out of here until you tell me," she added in a mock-threatening tone, crossing her arms over her chest.

Damon smiled weakly. "I can't be turned into a vampire," he said after a pause, making an effort to speak in order not to lose that odd thread of understanding that had developed between them during the last three months. "They injected me with some kind of a vaccine and now... I can't become a vampire again."

Bonnie was studying his face in silence for a few seconds, stopping herself before voicing an opinion that perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing, because she quickly realized just why exactly this turn of events must seem so disastrous to him.

As if out of their own accord, her eyes drifted to the grimoires, and suddenly, there were voices and images in her head. A woman she quickly guessed was her grandmother... Elena... in a purple outfit... Jeremy... Caroline... in the forest... Jeremy... Jeremy... So worried. They all looked so worried and she couldn't understand why. _"I'm so proud of you."_

Bonnie straightened up to hide a tremor that ran through her like a white, white flame. It hurt and yet she couldn't really feel the pain, because it was steadily subsiding, turning into some reckless, empowering sense of self-confidence.

"Do you think-" She started, but fell silent, when the door opened.

"Hey, are you almost done talking?" Jeremy asked, taking a step into the room. "Personally, I'm completely OK with you being here alone for another hour," he said and then added in a pretendedly very worried tone, "but it's past midnight and Elena is throwing loud jealousy fits in the hallway and I'm afraid that we'll end up getting expelled from this hotel," he said with a completely straight face, chuckling only when Elena poked him with a stifled laugh.

Bonnie smiled, glancing at Damon and smiling even more at the stunned, star-struck expression that appeared on his face as if, when Elena peered inside from behind Jeremy, he saw her for the very first time in his life.

Elena must've noticed the look in Damon's eyes too, because she stopped playfully nudging Jeremy and just stood motionlessly, gazing at Damon in silence just as he was gazing at her.

"Alright," Bonnie said with a grin, rising to her feet and exchanging amused looks with Jeremy. "See you tomorrow."

Damon slowly got up and took a few rather unsteady steps toward Elena without breaking the eye-contact with her. She muttered a good night, not glancing at either Bonnie or Jeremy, unable to look away from Damon, wondering what was going on. He looked at her in a way that made her heart race to the point she was losing her breath.

They walked out of Bonnie and Jeremy's room room and went straight to theirs that was located just a few feet way. They did so in complete silence and Elena wasn't sure what to make of it. There was something strange, but also enchanting about it.

She felt Damon standing right behind her, his breath ghosting over her skin when she slid the card key into the lock.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him raise his hand and very lightly touch her hair, trace a single strand with his fingertips. Elena drew a breath and held it, hearing her own quickened heartbeat reverberate in her ears. She had missed him and he must've missed her, even if it had only been a couple of hours since they had seen each other. But there was something more to this moment now, this tension between them that was suddenly, inexplicably more intense and almost terrifying. It made her think back to all those moments in the past before they were together when he would take her hand in his and she'd be completely caught off guard by all the emotions evoked by such a simple gesture, a hurricane of feelings that would make her every bone rattle, her every thought burn, leaving her shaken up and utterly confused every time.

Damon held the door open for her from behind and Elena wasn't sure why she didn't even look at him over her shoulder until they walked inside, their fingers colliding on the light switch, their eyes meeting and she found herself completely breathless, something about his demeanor striking her not so much as odd, but a little intimidating, in the most bewildering, curiously thrilling way that felt both familiar and warm, but also new and unexpected.

He didn't say a word and she didn't either and they just looked at each other for a longer while until Elena regained her composure and stepped away from the door, letting it close with a mute thud. Her fingers glided away from under Damon's and she felt hot shivers run up her spine at the dark light that glimmered in his eyes when she withdrew her hand. She half-expected him to grab her hand and tug her into his arms, but he seemed overwhelmingly calm, too calm for that even as she could feel the fire emanating from his eyes. He looked at her, mesmerized, and for a moment she felt tempted to make a humorous remark concerning that, but she didn't.

There was some kind of a vague thought forming itself in her mind, but she was pushing it away, not out of fear, but out of some abstract, happy precaution. There was something spellbinding about this moment now and she subconsciously felt that she'd ruin it by trying to clarify what exactly was going on. He was so very close and it'd take but a step for them to kiss, so she was a little baffled, but not worried and decided to let everything unfold as it would.

"I want to show you something," Elena said softly, taking a step into the room and producing a memory stick out of her skirt pocket.

Damon's darkened gaze was wandering all over her face, but very slowly, as if he was taking in every inch of her skin, as if he was kissing every inch of her skin with his eyes. Elena drew a shaky breath. Reaching out, she took Damon's hand in hers and smiled when he squeezed her hand in his so hard that she almost gasped out loud. She turned around and pulled him with her into the room and toward the night stand where the radio set was. Switching one of the side lamps on and sliding the flash-drive into the appropriate slot, Elena quickly found the song she was looking for and whirled around to face Damon, hurriedly pushing him toward the middle of the room before they lost too many notes of the song.

"That's the song that was playing during our first dance," Elena explained, her voice faltering, despite her efforts to keep it steady.

But it just wasn't easy to remain calm when he was looking at her unblinkingly, with the faintest smile playing about his lips as if she was some kind of a miraculous apparition and he was trying to convince himself that he was really seeing her.

Smiling up at him, Elena raised her hand, about to start explaining how the dance looked like and that he should just try mirroring her gestures.

But then suddenly, Damon pulled her against his chest, his palm splayed on her back as he held her in his arms as close as possible. One of Elena's hands automatically landed on his shoulder, her free hand intertwining tightly with his other one.

"It's supposed to be near-touch," Elena whispered with a small, amused smile, her eyes flickering to Damon's lips hovering right above hers and then her breath caught in her throat when she shifted her gaze back to his eyes and noticed the look in his eyes.

It was one of the looks she knew so well, his eyes seemingly red-rimmed and dimly aglow as if he'd been crying for the last hundred years, even though there were no tears in his eyes at the moment. _"I just have to say it once, you just need to hear it." "I'm setting you free, Elena." "Now I'm choosing." "Travel safe."_

Elena drew a sharp intake of breath, her eyes widening, her lips slightly parted when Damon spoke for the first time since they had walked into their room.

"I know," he whispered against her mouth and Elena's eyelids fluttered closed when he captured her lips in a brief, fervent kiss, her hand clenching around his shoulder when he slowly dragged his lips across her cheek. "Elena..." Damon pressed his mouth to her ear and murmured the words that made the tears spring to her eyes when they snapped open. "I told you I'd make it back to you."

xxxdelenaxxx

Alaric chuckled into the phone, smiling at something Meredith had said, when suddenly Rebekah dashed out of the bathroom and into the room with an expression on her face that made the smile on Alaric's face turn into a frown, his eyes darting from Rebekah's bloodied wrist to what looked like a tiny tracking device she was holding between her thumb and forefinger.

"I found this in my wrist!" Rebekah said through her teeth, her voice laced mostly with anger, but also with fear when she added. "They know where we are."


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** Thank you** so much **for your amazing reviews! :):):)

I can't believe that we only have seven chapters left! How did that happen?! I also can't believe how long this chapter is lol If the remaining chapters are going to be that long, I'm afraid it may take me even more than a week to update... Hopefully not, but RL is about to get really busy (new job!), so I just wanted to give you a fair warning ;) Thank you in advance for your patience :]

In other news: the wonderful **toolezbionic** just posted the first chapter of her post-5x22 fic **Letters from the Sky** and it is FANTASTIC, so don't hesitate to check it out! :)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 16**

"I should slap you _so_ hard," Elena whispered, sliding her open palms down Damon's cheeks and onto his neck while pressing open-mouthed kisses all over his face.

"If that's not much of an inconvenience, I'd rather you continue doing this instead," Damon said with a lop-sided smile, running his hands up and down Elena's back.

Elena laughed brokenly through her tears, cupping his face in her hands. "I knew something would go wrong," she said with a grimace, drawing a sharp intake of breath, her heart clenching painfully at the memory. She threw her arms around Damon and pressed herself to him as close as possible. "I was looking for you," she whispered breathlessly "All this time, I was looking for you. I never stopped. Not even for a second. I was trying to find you, trying to get you back-"

Damon smiled into her hair. "Elena." He drew back and kissed her slowly on the mouth, cradling her face in his hands. "I died with you by my side, knowing that I was loved. By you. That's the most beautiful death anyone could ask for." Elena shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but Damon brushed the backs of his fingers across her lips and continued in a low voice. "But... " He brought her hand to his lips and held it firmly in his, grazing her knuckles with his thumb. "I can't even describe what I felt when I had to let go of your hand thinking it was the last time I could ever touch you, ever see you."

He leaned in and they kissed, softly capturing each other's lips in brief, impatient kisses that quickly turned fierce and more desperate. Elena's hands were shaking, their breathing ragged, tears slipping in between their lips.

Leaving the Other Side without Damon. Bonnie saying that it was too late. Six months of searching for hope, trying not be paralyzed by grief that would crawl over her, into her every thought, every cell of her body the moment she'd stop, if only for a split second, believing that it was possible to bring Damon and Bonnie back, that it was only a matter of time. Somehow Damon not remembering all of that had made it easier for her not to think about that half a year anymore, but now with his memories back, hers seemed to attack her with full force and Elena felt overwhelmed and terrified by merely recalling those horrible months.

"I thought you didn't want to hear my voice or talk to me or even look at me," Elena said in one breath in an attempt to lighten the mood, because she didn't want this evening, one of the most beautiful evenings of their lives, to end up being gloomy.

Damon smiled faintly, pressing soft kisses along Elena's lips. "That was rude, I admit, but if we're comparing our break-up speeches, your 'let's be friends' idea takes the cake. It was by far the worst."

Elena chuckled under her breath, running her hand across Damon's face and through his hair. "Speaking of break-ups and since you're so good at keeping promises," she said leaning her forehead against his when they both smiled, closing their eyes for a second, "you have to promise me that we'll never break-up again."

Stifling a smile that Elena didn't miss, Damon lowered his head to her neck and planted a few lingering kisses there. "Actually, now that I think about it," he muttered and she felt her skin tingle, a tremor running through her both at his touch, but also because of his voice, so comfortingly close, so endlessly warm, so familiarly teasing. "We never un-broke up, not officially at least."

The song ended in the background and they looked at each other in silence for a few moments, Damon's hand sifting through Elena's hair, his fingertips skimming across her cheek when he gently propped her chin with his hand and kissed her fervently on the mouth.

"Any ideas on how we do that, then?" Elena asked barely above a whisper, her hands anchored on Damon's shoulders, her eyes boring into his. "Even though I think we _did_ un-break-up earlier today," she added, biting back an amused smile. "You might want to ask your amnesiac self about that."

"I didn't forget about that," Damon said with a smirk, tucking Elena's hair behind her ear with one hand, his other hand wrapped around her waist. "And by the way, it was all very sweet. The overprotective mode, memories censorship."

Elena sighed. "I didn't manage to make it last for very long."

"And just for how long you wanted it to last, Elena?" Damon asked, raising his eyebrows at her in a warmly amused expression.

"For as long as possible," Elena replied bluntly with a shrug and then laughed briefly, pressing a kiss to his lips. "I liked being your only girlfriend."

"You _are_ my only girlfriend," Damon said, covering her hand on his cheek with his and bringing their joined hands to his lips.

"You know what I mean," Elena said, outstretching her fingers after he'd kissed her knuckles and sliding her hand down his face.

Damon caught her hand again and tugged her toward him, their lips colliding in a feverish kiss. "The only memories that I want to have, are the memories of you." He glanced at their hands and Elena followed his gaze, their fingers intertwining slowly as they looked up at the same time, their eyes locking.

"I need you to promise me one more thing," Elena said, her forehead falling against his and she smiled when their eyelashes touched every time either of them blinked.

"Anything," Damon said with a radiant smirk, his fingertips tracing the side of Elena's face, but then stopping when she said:

"Promise me you'll never die again."

It wasn't exactly a humorous thing to say and she felt a pang of pain at the words, but she just really wanted him to promise her that there'd be no more half-a-suicide missions that could potentially go horribly wrong.

Elena smiled a little, despite the tears still lingering in the corners of her eyes. But then she realized that Damon's hand was motionless on her cheek and that his grin faded into a faint, grim, bitter grimace. And she felt an icy-cold shiver ran through her, because there was no teasing in his voice, just sadness when he whispered hollowly:

"I can't."

xxxdelenaxxx

"We have to leave immediately!" Rebekah said impatiently, widening her eyes at Stefan and Caroline.

"Well, I'm sorry, but at the very least I need to get dressed first," Caroline snapped, holding onto the towel she had wrapped around herself when someone had started pounding on their door. The shampoo was still in her hair and she really didn't feel like the situation warranted interrupting her shower.

"They know where we are!" Rebekah repeated incredulously, shifting her gaze between them, wondering if they had even heard what she had said.

"Yes, you said that five times," Caroline said with a huff.

"Is there really a reason to panic?" Stefan asked to Rebekah's growing frustration.

"Are you deaf?" She asked with a grimace, squinting.

"No, we're not deaf. We're just failing to see why we should leave right away," Caroline said in annoyance, brushing the bubbles off her forehead. "Do you really think they'll randomly invade a hotel full of people in the middle of the night? They're not some reckless vampire hunters. They're just a bunch of deranged scientists and half-baked politicians who want to protect the human race," she said mockingly.

"Some people are trying to sleep." Enzo's voice broke into the conversation and Rebekah's eyes flew to him when he appeared behind Stefan and Caroline. "Nice outfit," he said with a smirk flickering across his face when Caroline glanced at him over her shoulder.

A knock on the door interrupted them and when Stefan opened the door Alaric peered inside. "Are you ready?"

Rebekah shot Caroline a triumphant look, demonstrating that apparently everyone else understood how dire the situation was.

"Bonnie and Jeremy are packing the grimoires. I'm going to go get Damon and Elena," Alaric said, glancing between Caroline, Enzo and Stefan. "We'll meet in the garage in a few minutes, alright?"

Caroline rolled her eyes and marched back to the bathroom. Alaric gave Stefan a questioning look.

"They just don't see a reason to panic," Rebekah said in a mocking tone, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We're not panicking," Alaric said with a thin smile, glancing at Rebekah and then looking back at Stefan. "We're relocating in a hurry."

"Well, I'm not relocating anywhere," Enzo said gruffly and everyone's eyes darted to him. "I'm setting my plan in motion," he said with a mirthless, crooked smile, walking past Stefan, Rebekah and Alaric and stepping out of the room.

xxxdelenaxxx

It took Elena a few moments to collect herself enough to say the words in the most accepting and calm tone she could muster. "You decided to stay human?"

As soon as she had said it out loud, she thought she shouldn't have made it sound like a question, because somehow the question mark had endowed the words with a hint of incredulity and that felt selfish. So selfish. With a twinge of guilt Elena realized, that despite genuinely wishing for him to really think it through, somehow at the same time, deep down, she actually didn't expect him to decide not to turn.

"Elena."

"I'm sorry." Elena shook her head, trying to shake off the painful feeling that seemed to fall heavily onto her shoulders, weighing her down. "I didn't mean to- I mean- Of course- I understand-"

"_Elena_."

She blinked rapidly when Damon abruptly cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.

"I didn't," he whispered against her lips, looking deeply into her eyes. "I didn't decide to stay human. I got injected with some stupid anti-vampirism vaccine and now I can't be turned," he said with a frown.

"What?" Elena gasped out in complete astonishment, trying to wrap her mind around what he had just said. "How? How did it happen? When? Where?"

Damon's expression brightened a little at the utter dismay on Elena's face. He pulled her into his arms and kissed the corner of her mouth. "I have to say I'm rather glad you're upset... but maybe you shouldn't be. What's great about it, is that if you get tired of me in fifty years or so, you can just put me in a senior care center."

"Damon, this is not funny," Elena said, wincing, her eyes absently scanning the room, her mind reeling in search of a solution.

"Elena." Damon slid his fingers into her hair and brushed his lips against hers, pressing a few kisses to her lips before saying. "I don't know if there's an antidote, but I'll find out."

Elena blinked and then her eyes widened in renewed dismay. "You can't go back to that hospital or anywhere near any of those people!" She exhaled, averting her eyes from him for a second. "Leave it to me. Maybe Enzo could help," she added under her breath, thinking that it might be a little preposterous asking Enzo to essentially put his life on the line for the third time within one day, and pretty much in the same way no less, but unfortunately he was the only one who'd been invited in that doctor's house and searching his private laboratory seemed like the best first bet.

Narrowing his eyes at Elena in a mockingly threatening manner, Damon backed her up against the wall. "If there's one thing worse than being human," he said with his lips hovering over hers. "It's being treated like one."

Elena snorted mirthlessly. "If you think that I'm going to let you run around risking your _human_ life, then you should go to a hospital, but of a different kind!" She whispered with a worried, frustrated frown, purposefully deepening it when Damon began fumbling with the top button of her dress. "If you're trying to distract me, you're failing."

Damon smirked. "Am I?" He asked, slowly unhooking the first button, but then roughly moving his hand downwards, causing the rest of the buttons to scatter to the floor.

Caught off guard, Elena gasped, her eyes instinctively fluttering shut when Damon's lips captured hers in a bruising kiss.

"You liked him better, didn't you?" Damon asked breathlessly, breaking the kiss and Elena opened her eyes and stared up at him, perplexed.

"Whom?"

"The amnesiac me," Damon clarified and Elena suppressed a chuckle, her eyes laughing.

"Why would you think that?" She asked with a teasing smile, placing her hands on Damon's shoulders and pursing her lips to touch his when he inched his mouth closer to hers, their foreheads touching.

"You weren't getting mad at him," Damon pointed out with a small smirk.

Elena laughed under her breath. "Well, he was being more respectful toward my clothes," she added with pretended seriousness after a moment of consideration.

"That's because he didn't remember thinking that he'd never see you again," Damon replied in a hushed voice and Elena's smile turned into a grimace as she clasped her arms tighter around his neck and hugged him, closing her eyes when she felt his arms lock around her, gathering her to him. "Do you know what was the first memory that I got back?" Damon asked after a moment of silence and Elena could feel him smile against her neck. He lifted his head to look at her. "Our first kiss."

Elena's eyes widened in a smile, but then her expression turned grim again. "Stop trying to distract me!" She said with a resolute frown, pressing a silencing kiss to his lips. "I don't want to wake up tomorrow with a note on the pillow saying that you've gone on another suicide mission!"

"Technically, it'd be the opposite of a suicide mission," Damon said with a faint smirk, twirling a lock of Elena's hair around his fingers.

Elena's eyes wandered around his face for a few moments before she drew a breath and whispered in a challenging, determined voice. "I could compel you not to do anything stupid."

Tilting his head to the side, Damon looked at her with a glimpse of amusement in his eyes and then suddenly he whirled her around so she was facing the wall. He pinned her against it, swiftly tearing the back of her dress off her shoulders, gathering her hair in one hand and nestling his face in her neck.

"Could you?" He muttered huskily, planting hot kisses on her skin, trailing them over her shoulders, across her back. "Right now, perhaps?"

Elena closed her eyes with a gasp, panting quietly, shivering under his touch and his kisses, awkwardly supporting herself with her hands splayed on the wall in front of her. She shuddered when she felt his bare chest press onto her back.

"Right now you are compelling me," Elena observed in a pretendedly wry tone. She felt Damon smile against her skin.

"I missed you, Elena," he whispered in a tone that was suddenly painfully serious and Elena felt tears sting her eyelids, because she knew exactly what he'd meant.

She had felt it too, that gripping sense of loss that no words could properly convey, that had been constantly keeping her in excruciating pain, that had been choking her to death over and over again every second and yet never killing her_ enough_ for the pain stop.

"I missed you even when I didn't remember you. I was dreaming about you every night," Damon continued in a low voice, grazing her skin with his lips. "I couldn't see your face, but I felt that you were with me."

Elena bit her lip, stifling a sob, a broken smile flickering across her face. "I couldn't breathe without you," she said in a quiet, strained voice laced with tears that rushed down her face when she opened her eyes.

She felt a tremor ran through him and she slowly turned around, wincing even more at the tense, distraught expression in his eyes. She grabbed his face and kissed him.

"I can't lose you again," she whispered, her tears falling onto his cheeks when she snuggled her face against his.

He pushed her hair off her cheeks and smiled weakly, but with a determined glint in his eyes. "You won't." He kissed her and added with his lips still touching hers. "We'll find a way."

Elena nodded with a grimace and then they held their breaths for a few seconds, just gazing at each other before their lips crashed together and they smiled and laughed between the impatient kisses, Elena's nails digging into Damon's back, his hands roaming everywhere they could reach.

"Damon! Elena!"

They both jolted in surprise, Elena instinctively hiding in Damon's arms that closed protectively around her when after breaking the door open Alaric charged into the room, a deeply worried and anxious frown on his face turning into a startled and embarrassed one, when instead of finding the room empty, like he'd feared he might, he ran into half-naked people making out.

"I spent at least three minutes knocking on the door, very loudly," Alaric said, abruptly turning away from them and closing his eyes, even though technically either one of the precautions would've been enough.

"No, there's no bourbon in our mini-bar either. Now if you don't mind... Good night," Damon said with a thin smile. Elena stifled a chuckle, pressing her lips to Damon's shoulder.

Alaric snorted. "Yeah, well, I'm afraid that's not it. We have to go."

"What's going on?" Damon asked with a frown, which took some effort, because it wasn't easy to frown while Elena was pressing herself as close to him as possible, apparently thinking that under the circumstances it was the closest she could get to appearing not naked.

"Get your stuff, most importantly get dressed," Alaric said matter-of-factly, "and we'll meet in the underground garage," he said, opening his eyes and glancing with a sigh at the door he had damaged rather permanently. "The Augustines may know where we are, because Rebekah found some kind of a tracking device in her wrist."

Damon groaned under his breath. "Congratulations to the genius who rescued her," he said, giving Elena a humorously pointed look.

"Actually, that'd be Enzo," Elena replied, squinting.

Alaric blinked, suddenly struck by a familiar note in Damon's voice he hadn't heard since their post-death reunion yet. "Am I missing something?" He asked, wrinkling his forehead.

Elena shifted her eyes between Damon and Alaric, smiling a little at the realization.

"Damon got his memories back," she said, pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

"What? Already? When?" Alaric almost turned around in surprise, but then immediately closed his eyes again and headed for the door without looking at them. "You'll tell me later how it happened. I'll see you in the garage. Hurry up. And don't bother closing the door," he added on his way out.

When Alaric left, Elena quickly sneaked out of Damon's embrace to find some _un_-ripped clothes, but Damon caught her hand and pulled her back into his arms.

"We don't have a door!" Elena whispered with a chuckle, playfully punching him lightly on the chest.

"I don't want a door. I want you," Damon said, slanting his mouth across hers and Elena gave in for a second, kissing him back passionately before abruptly snatching herself free, zooming to her suitcase and pulling a skirt and one of Damon's shirts she had been sleeping in out of it.

Holding his gaze, she put it on, quickly buttoning it up and smiling at him when he walked up to her.

"Cute PJs," Damon said with a smirk, looking Elena up and down, grasping her hand and rolling the sleeves up for her a little. "Any other interesting habits you've developed lately that I'd like to hear about?" He asked, keeping her hand in his, leaning down and planting a kiss in the middle of her palm.

Elena moved her hands to his cheeks and laughed briefly under her breath, brushing her lips against his. "Maybe," she said coyly. "But right now we have to go!" She said with another laugh, picking Damon's shirt up from the chair onto which he had thrown it and tossing it at him.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Don't they know where we live anyway?" Bonnie asked, placing one grimoire over the other in Jeremy's carry on. "If Dr. August knew your dad-"

"They could track us back to Mystic Falls, but we don't live there anymore anyway," Jeremy replied with a small frown, but then smiled and quickly continued. "Maybe we should move somewhere even further away? Moving to Florida for safety reasons sounds pretty good, what do you think?"

Bonnie smiled back at him, but then grabbed the last grimoire from the nightstand and walked up to Jeremy. "Do you miss it?" She asked in a low voice, looking at him intently.

Jeremy glanced up at her, picking his backpack up from the floor and sliding his laptop into it. "Miss what?"

"Home," Bonnie replied, crossing her arms over her chest.

Jeremy looked at her for a second as if trying to decipher her intentions behind asking the question. "Bonnie-"

"I know that you're trying to protect me, but..." Bonnie sighed, absently drumming her fingers over the hand-written grimoire in her arms. "Isn't it how we all ended up here? Trying to protect one another?" She smiled when Jeremy nodded with a weak snort. "It seems to me that with this supernatural factor in, keeping someone else safe usually means putting yourself in danger. So it's a vicious circle, really. A very beautiful, but vicious circle," Bonnie said with a brief laugh.

"But that's the thing, Bonnie," Jeremy said earnestly with a small grimace. "You don't have to be a part of this anymore. You're human and if you stay away from magic, you can have a normal life, a life Elena and Caroline can no longer have even if they wanted to. But you can. I don't want anyone to take that away from you."

"Jeremy, they are my friends, right? Elena is your sister. Your father was experimenting on vampires. You step-dad is a vampire. My grandmother was a witch, my mother is a witch-turned-vampire, my father was killed by an evil doppelganger warlock and my best friend is depressed because he can't be a vampire again," Bonnie said in one breath, smiling humorlessly at the list that she knew wasn't even half complete. Jeremy squinted, a little confused by the last example, but Bonnie continued, before he had a chance to ask for a clarification. "I don't think any of us can ever have a normal life," she said said with a weak chuckle. "But it doesn't mean we can't be happy," she added, glancing at the grimoire in her hands.

"Magic won't make you or anyone else happy, Bonnie," Jeremy said quietly with a small grimace, placing his hands on her shoulders and pulling her into an embrace, his eyes glimmering with concern.

Bonnie smiled and for a moment Jeremy thought he saw in her eyes a glimpse of that familiar, admirable, terrifying courage that looked deceptively similar to a veil of unshed tears.

"You're right. Magic can't do that," Bonnie said with a wistful, timidly hopeful smile. "But maybe I can?"

xxxdelenaxxx

"No, no, we're supposed to go down," Elena said, placing her hand over Damon's when after they'd walked into the elevator he'd pressed the button to go to the highest floor instead of the garage.

She really thought he'd made an accidental mistake, but when he clasped her hand in his before she managed to press the correct button and then used this hold on her to push her against one of the mirrored elevator walls her eyes widened in amused dismay.

They kissed and Elena thought that was as scandalous as they would get, but then she felt Damon's hands slide under her skirt. Moving his lips to her collarbones, he swiftly hoisted her up in the air, her legs automatically wrapping around him.

"Damon, we can't," Elena whispered breathlessly with a nervous smile, burying her hands in his hair when he nuzzled her neck. She glanced anxiously at the flickering floor buttons. "Someone may-"

She trailed off with an involuntary moan, her eyes widening before fluttering shut, her hands clenching around his shoulders. Damon's forehead fell helplessly against hers, one hand on her thigh, his other hand cupping her cheek. Elena leaned into his touch and they were completely still for a moment.

"I'm sorry..." Damon gasped out against her lips, kissing her and she shook her head with a faint smile, kissing him back and wrapping her arm around him, stroking the side of his face with her fingertips. "I just... I need you. I need this," he whispered, his face contorted in a grimace of pain, of ecstasy, the warmth of his voice enveloping her in the calm and the storm, all at once. "I need to forget ever being away from you."

"I know. Me too," Elena whispered softly, meeting his burning gaze when he opened his eyes, beginning to move against her. Her hands anchored on his shoulders, she glided her lips from one corner of his mouth to the other. "I love you."

"I love _you_."

They exchanged helpless, conspiratorial, feverish smiles before their eyes closed at the same time and they continued kissing slowly, thoroughly, tenderly, even as their movements were becoming more and more frantic, the heat sizzling between them like a single flame that suddenly burst into fire, into water, flooding their senses.

They were so close to each other, so close it was impossible to be closer and yet they were trying to be even closer, closer, closer with every kiss, every touch. There was nothing in between them now, there could never be, in any way. They'd never be apart again - the incredible, exhilarating realization made them cry out between the kisses, shatter in each other's arms, their eyes locking for a second before Damon buried his face in Elena's hair, and she pressed her cheek to his neck with a serene, exhausted smile.

Clumsily, they pressed the garage button with their interlaced hands, smiling against each other's lips and kissing hurriedly a few more times before hastily trying to remedy their disheveled appearance before the elevator reached the underground.

Damon grabbed Elena's hand and her carry-on while she once again quickly ran her fingers through her hair and smoothed out Damon's hair, stifling a smile when he looked at her out of the corner of his eye, smirking and tightly squeezing her hand in his.

They seemed to be the last people to come, but luckily no one was sending any impatient looks their way, a heated discussion that was apparently taking place occupying everyone's attention. Although a discussion wasn't probably the most precise word to use, because it looked more like Caroline was doing all the talking, while Stefan, Alaric, Jeremy, Bonnie, Rebekah and Enzo were either listening or pretending not to be listening to her.

Feeling confident that even if they actually looked a little disheveled no one was going to notice anyway, Elena was about to make some humorous remark, but Enzo beat her to it:

"Oh dear. You broke up again, didn't you?" He said with a small, mischievous smile, tilting his head to the side and fleetingly looking them up and down.

Damon narrowed his eyes at him. Elena's forehead wrinkled in confusion, but then she felt the color rise to her cheeks in embarrassment. She shot Damon a wide-eyed look.

"You told him about _that_?" She asked incredulously in a low voice.

Damon grimaced. "Yeah, well, I was... confused, and... I wanted to hear someone else's opinion to know if it was... objectively confusing." He gave Elena an uncertain look, but suppressed a smile noticing that she was only pretending to be so outraged.

"And what did he say?"

"That it wasn't confusing at all."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes. He basically said it was completely normal."

"Completely normal." Elena widened her eyes at Damon trying to keep herself from chuckling. "That's a relief to know."

Damon nodded, somehow managing to keep a straight face before adding with a pensive frown. "He was confused by the part when we went to Jeremy's parent-teacher conference together, though."

Elena looked at Damon, willing herself not to blink, because somehow she was certain that if she blinked, she'd end up bursting out laughing.

"Great! You're here!" Caroline broke into their hushed conversation. "Now could you explain to these crazy people why blowing up a hospital is not a good idea?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and sending both Enzo and Rebekah annoyed glares before shifting her eyes to Damon.

"Yes, exactly," Enzo joined, in giving Caroline a lingering look before turning his gaze to Damon as well. "Could you explain to these crazy people why running away from problems instead of facing them is a bad idea?" He asked, nonchalantly waving his hand into the general direction of Caroline, Stefan, Alaric, Bonnie and Jeremy.

Caroline chuckled mirthlessly. "That's a _really_ weird and manipulative way of putting it," she scoffed, giving Enzo an irritated look.

Enzo shrugged, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Rebekah was watching him with a genuinely amused smile playing about her lips.

"And how exactly did I end up on the explaining things to crazy people duty?" Damon asked, glancing between everyone with his eyebrows furrowed.

"General community announcement," Stefan spoke up, raising his hand in a slightly comical way. "Damon has his memories back."

"What?!" Caroline swirled around, looking between Stefan and Damon. "Why no one told me about that?!"

"I _just_ found out myself," Alaric said, glancing at Bonnie and Jeremy who didn't look surprised.

"Bonnie just told me," Jeremy explained with a smile.

"No one told me about it either," Enzo echoed Caroline's words, pushing himself away from the car. "But this is _good news_," he added with a smile in a gritty, ill-boding voice that Rebekah had to admit was rather attractive.

"No it's not!" Caroline exclaimed immediately, flailing her hands in the air. "It isn't, right?" She asked, giving Damon a demandingly questioning look.

Bonnie looked between everyone a little confused, having a nagging feeling that she was missing some vital pieces of information, because she wasn't sure she understood what exactly they were talking about.

Damon's mouth twitched. "I'm sorry, I zoned out," he said with a brief, fake smile. "What was the question?" He asked in a pretendedly eager voice.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest, giving him a narrowed-eyed, no-nonsense look.

"The only question left is, do we take hostages or just get rid of everyone?" Enzo said offhandedly.

"OK." Elena shook her head with a small frown. "What is going on?" She looked at Jeremy, Bonnie and Alaric, hoping that they could provide her with some clear answers.

"Well, nothing new, apparently," Alaric said with a wry grimace.

"Team _Renzo_ wants to kill everyone and Team Everyone Else wants to get the hell out of here," Caroline snapped.

"The Augustines know where we are, so we should at least change the hotel," Jeremy said matter-of-factly and Bonnie thought there was a hint of hesitation in his tone that indicated that for some reason he wasn't in favor of leaving the town altogether.

"I second this," Damon said and Jeremy raised an eyebrow in mild amusement over Damon agreeing with him. "Well, to some degree." Damon cleared his throat. "I have to stay here for a bit longer, but everyone else should fly back home." He looked at Elena and then shifted his eyes to Alaric, giving him a meaningful look that Alaric unfortunately seemed to ignore, looking at Elena and waiting for her opinion instead.

"You're not staying here!" Elena said, giving Damon an exasperated look.

Enzo smiled. "Like I said, good news."

"Why do you want to stay here?" Caroline exclaimed with a grimace.

"Is it about the cure?" Bonnie asked worriedly.

"We're not seriously back to that subject," Rebekah cut in with a disbelieving groan, although Enzo thought there was also an involuntary hint of hopeful interest in her tone.

"Not _that_ cure," Stefan said, glancing at her.

"What cure?" Enzo looked between Stefan and Rebekah.

"We can figure something out when we get home," Bonnie said reassuringly, giving Damon an encouraging nod and glancing at Elena who looked grateful for her support, but also not really convinced it was going to work.

"Figure what out?" Enzo muttered, beginning to feel annoyed that he didn't understand what they were talking about.

"The Augustines injected Damon with an anti-vampirism vaccine. He can't be turned," Stefan explained, just so Enzo would stop asking questions.

"Well, that's arguably horrible, but how is that our main problem at the moment?" Caroline asked impatiently.

Alaric was about to point out that having this conversation here and now was probably not the greatest idea, but before he had a chance to do so, a piercing sound tore through the air and he felt an unbearable pain shot through his head, making him feel like it was simultaneously shrinking and about to explode.

Holding his head in his hands and trying to block out the pain, Alaric looked around. Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo collapsed to the ground screaming while Rebekah seemed to be struggling to stand, wincing in pain. Apparently whatever was happening was affecting the regular vampires most, which couldn't be good.

Damon fell to his knees next to Elena, apparently calling her name, even though Alaric couldn't hear anything in the mind-numbing noisy silence, if there was ever such a thing.

"What's going on?" Bonnie shouted, looking around with terrified eyes, giving Jeremy a horrified, questioning look. She wanted to rush toward everyone to help them, but to her further dismay she realized that she couldn't move.

Jeremy also couldn't, as if they were suddenly confined to a space consisting of a few steps around them.

"Elena!"

Bonnie's eyes flew to Damon and she gasped in bewilderment at the sight of Elena's body floating in the air despite Damon's efforts to keep her in his arms and on the ground. He seemed to bounce against some invisible wall surrounding him, just like she and Jeremy did when they tried to move.

Everything seemed to be happening simultaneously in slow-motion and in a flash. Elena, Enzo, Caroline and Stefan were lifted off the ground and Bonnie's eyes followed the direction in which they were being taken, her eyes widening in shock at the sight of a familiar figure standing not very far away, behind one of the pillars, the look of cold concentration on her face clearly suggesting that she was making it all happen... whatever it was that was currently happening and Bonnie blinked in indignation, feeling painfully helpless and yet feeling as if the helplessness was being pushed away-

But before she had a chance to concentrate on the strange sensation rippling through her, everything stopped. The screaming and the weird, confiding barriers around her, Jeremy and Damon. Rebekah fell to the ground with a gasp, trying to catch her breath just like Alaric was. Bonnie's eyes scanned the surroundings with a growing sense of dread when she realized that everything stopped but... Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo - were gone.

Damon looked around the garage in horrified dismay.

"I'm beginning to understand why Nik hates them so much," Rebekah grunted, straightening up and pushing her hair over her shoulders with an annoyed frown.

"What are you talking about?" Jeremy asked impatiently.

"Witches," Rebekah replied, giving him an irritated look, as if he should've guessed that on his own. "It was a witch. Just one stupid witch. I saw her." Rebekah squinted into the distance and then added with a weak snarl. "I should've realized she was a witch."

Bonnie shook her head, trying to break through her confusion and the unpleasant, cold feeling of sadness and disappointment evoked by the fact that witches could hurt people like that. "No, it wasn't a witch..." she said firmly, but could already feel the conviction beginning to fade from her mind and her voice, because she realized that there was no actual reason why Rebekah's assessment couldn't be a correct one. "I saw her too," Bonnie said tonelessly, wrinkling her forehead. "It was Amanda."


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:** Thank you SO MUCH for all of your fantastic reviews! :):):)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 17**

Elena woke up to the quiet sound of a humming engine. She blinked her eyes open, acknowledging with a frown that she was in the passenger seat of a car. The memory of being lifted off the ground, her hand being torn out of Damon's and everyone screaming flashed through her mind and she jolted upright, wondering where she was, her head snapping to her left to see who was driving the car-

"Matt?" She whispered with a grimace, staring at Matt in bewilderment, which only grew when he appeared to be completely oblivious to her presence, not shifting his eyes to her when she spoke.

Elena reached out to touch his arm, just to check if that'd work to attract his attention, but before she had a chance to do so, she saw Matt's eyes suddenly widen in absolute dismay. Following his gaze, Elena gasped at the sight of Rebekah standing in the middle of the road.

"_Matt, watch out!"_

She did _not_ scream and yet her own voice reverberated loudly in her ears, as if it was playing from a giant movie screen behind her.

The car skidded across the Wickery Bridge and Elena automatically squeezed her eyes shut when the car broke through the barrier on the side of the bridge. She expected it to crash into the river within a split second-

But it didn't.

It just... stopped. Everything stopped. All the sounds seemed to have drown in eerie silence.

Elena opened her eyes and looked through the windshield at the motionless river below. It looked completely surreal. The river and the car which was, as she suddenly realized, hanging half way down, suspended in the air like a still image, about to hit the water that looked as if it was made out of dark, midnight blue paper.

Perplexed, Elena blinked, beginning to suspect that she was dreaming. Somehow it didn't _feel_ like a dream. But she couldn't think of a more likely explanation.

Her eyes shifted to Matt and she wrinkled her forehead at the disconcerting sight. Just like the car and the river and apparently everything else except for her, Matt seemed frozen in time and space, his eyes wide, his hands gripping the steering wheel in a hopeless attempt to keep the car from crashing into the current.

For a second, the vivid memory of that night returned to Elena and she winced briefly remembering the water feeling her lungs, making it impossible for her to breathe, the pain splitting through her chest, through her entire body, until some kind of a fading connection between her and her surroundings broke; until everything stopped and the light, all the lights, all the light in the world, every last glimmer of it - went off.

Elena looked at Matt, relieved that there was no pain attached to this part of her memory at least, because he hadn't died that night.

Averting her eyes from Matt, Elena looked at the dark, motionless surface of the water below with a faint, warm, conspiratorial smile. _"I've never seen you more alive."_ She hadn't _really_ died that night either.

"That's quite terrifying."

Elena shuddered at the voice that sounded as if its owner was right next to her. After a quick inspection, however, she was certain there was no one in the car with her except for Matt who still looked more like a statue. Then again if it was a dream...

With a determined, vaguely annoyed frown Elena pushed the car door open and looked down at the murky waters of the river. If it was a dream – or even more so if it wasn't – she wasn't going to let herself be intimidated by it. She swung her legs outside of the car wondering what was going to happen if she'd try to stand.

Well, there was only one way to find out, Elena thought with an inward sigh and then, trying to hold onto some happy images in her head, she stepped out of the car.

"Must've been horrible to actually tumble down into this river."

To Elena's astonishment, her feet didn't land on the air. Neither did she fall into the water. Instead, she found herself in the middle of the Wickery Bridge and her eyes met Amanda's unsettlingly tranquil, calculating gaze.

"You?" Elena grimaced, immediately recognizing her, even though she'd only seen her once before when Amanda had splashed the vervained water over her in the hospital cafeteria. "What is this?" Elena asked, looking around. "A hallucination?"

Amanda tilted her head from side to side. "Something like that. A projection. Based on your memories."

Elena glared at her, the idea of someone getting into her head bringing back the very worst associations. And it didn't make her feel any better that Amanda seemed aware of that.

"I should probably start with an apology," Amanda said, taking a few steps toward her. "I really thought you _were_ Katherine Pierce. I didn't know about the doppelgangers," she continued, ignoring the baffled and utterly indignant look on Elena's face. "That's very interesting."

"You have... looked through _my_ _memories_?" Elena asked in a sharp, slightly uneven voice, her hands rolling into fists at her sides.

There was a glimpse of both cold triumph, but also simmering irritation in Amanda's eyes when she nodded.

"How dare you?"

"Don't get too agitated," Amanda said lightly with a faint sneer flickering across her face. "I'm in control of this right now," she said, glancing at their surroundings as if she was taking an assessing look around a furnished theater stage. "And if I get mad..." She looked straight at Elena, the tone of her voice changing to match the hard look in her eyes. "I may start erasing things."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Where are you going?!"

Alaric ran after Damon when ten seconds after having seemingly agreed they should sit down and decide what to do without giving in to panic, Damon had stormed to his feet and demanded car keys from Jeremy who, despite Alaric wordlessly communicating to him not to do that, had given the keys to Damon without arguing.

"I'm going to find them," Damon snapped, jumping into the car.

Alaric shook his head with a grimace, opening the passenger door and peering into the car. "How? We don't know where they've been taken!"

"Oh, and because we don't know we shouldn't bother checking the most likely places," Damon snarled angrily, starting the engine.

Alaric sighed in exasperation, glancing at Jeremy, Bonnie and Rebekah over his shoulder.

"If I could at least _read_ these," Bonnie whispered through her teeth in frustration, glancing at the small grimoire she was still holding in her hands.

Rebekah's head turned toward her. "If _reading_ is the problem, I can read these," she said, receiving stunned looks from everyone. "My mother was teaching me," she explained with an impatient huff.

"Well, _reading_ is one thing-" Bonnie started, but Alaric cut her off in mid-sentence.

"Go somewhere safe and try to figure... something out," he said, looking at Jeremy who nodded quickly. "We'll be in touch," he said, checking if he had his phone with him, before throwing himself into the passenger's seat at the last moment before Damon drove off, the sound of screeching tires reverberating loudly in the garage.

xxxdelenaxxx

All kinds of heedless ideas were rushing through Elena's head as she was trying to think of something to do to get out of her current predicament. Even if it was some kind of a projection based on her memories and not her memory itself, it probably still meant that, technically, they were in her head. It was all in her head. So whatever Amanda was saying, she was _not_ in control of it. She couldn't be. She was most likely bluffing... at least to some extent.

Drawing a sharp intake of breath, Elena closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, with all her might, on a different memory.A beautiful one. A safe one.

And to her relief, when she opened her eyes again, it seemed that her idea had worked, because she wasn't on the Wickery Bridge anymore.

"_I just have to say something."_

Elena looked around her old room and smiled, the smile almost bringing tears, happy tears to her eyes when she saw Damon, frozen in time and space but Damon no less, sitting on her window seat with her vervain necklace in his hand.

Moving between her memories instead of doing something more along the lines of "waking up" was probably not the greatest achievement, but at least Elena felt like she had made a step into the right direction.

She sat down on the window seat next to Damon and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I could use some advice on what to do next," she muttered with a sigh.

"What about: start listening to what I'm saying?"

Elena jumped to her feet, her eyes darting to Amanda who was standing across from her on the other side of her room.

"I like the wallpaper," Amanda said conversationally, scrutinizing Elena's room with her eyes narrowed.

"Get out of here!"

"I see you really don't understand."

A twinge of cold pierced through Elena when Amanda's eyes drifted away and then a quiet sound made Elena abruptly turn around, her gaze darting toward the window.

Her vervain necklace was lying on the floor below her empty window seat.

Elena frowned. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Everything seemed the way it was, except that... except that... Elena felt a sense of dread wash over her like an icy cold wave. Except that she couldn't remember what had happened. Why was her necklace on the floor?

"What did you do?!" Elena yelped, whirling around, unable to shake off a strong, painful feeling that she'd just forgotten something, that something had happened in her room, with her necklace, that she couldn't remember. She remembered brushing her teeth in the bathroom, walking back into her room... and finding the necklace on the floor. But there _was_ something in between. There _was_ something more to that. Something she could no longer remember.

"I did warn you," Amanda said in a low voice. "Start paying attention or I'll erase all of it."

"What do you want?" Elena asked, blinking back the tears, feeling as if she'd just lost something more than a memory. "Why are you doing this?"

"I want to help you," Amanda said in a strangely sincere tone.

"Help me? I don't need any help."

"Well, you think you don't, because you learned to adapt. That's what we all do when we have no other choice."

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked with a grimace.

"I can't turn you back into a human, but I could erase all of your vampire memories. You'd feel almost human. You could become one of us. An Augustine. You could continue your father's work and help us freeing the world from monsters. You didn't want to be a vampire. I saw that in your memories. You didn't make a conscious choice to become a vampire and you had a hard time learning how to be one."

"Stay away from my memories!" Elena said through her teeth interrupting Amanda's speech and hurling a stash of books at her.

Closing her eyes, Elena once again tried to focus on a single memory and when a moment later she looked around, she was at the Mystic Grill.

There was something chilling about everyone standing perfectly still, caught in mid-action, in mid-smile, the place very quiet despite the number of people gathered inside. Jeremy was sitting not very far away from her at one of the tables, a grim expression on his face. Elena glanced at him with a faint, sad smile, before her eyes shifted to Damon and she snorted weakly at the memory. Damon was standing right in front of her, doing "the eye thing" after she'd just asked him not to do it ever again.

"I need to get out of here," Elena whispered, cupping the motionless Damon's face in her hands and pressing a soft kiss to his still lips.

She stepped back and quickly looked around the Grill with wary eyes. She didn't know what to do. Running away and hiding was not a solution. She had to find a way to get out of this memory world, hallucination, projection, whatever the hell it really was.

She ran outside and looked around, wondering if maybe she should get herself "killed" in this memory world. It was a crazy thought, but she was pretty sure she had seen something like that in a movie once. Someone had to get killed in a dream to wake up. So maybe if she "died" here she'd regain her consciousness in the real world?

Then again it _could_ be the opposite. Elena brought her hands to her head, quickly tucking loose strands of hair behind her ears. She took a step forward, but then turned around at the sound of a car speeding through the town, heading straight for the Grill.

Elena's eyes widened when she recognized Damon's camaro and she was going to step out of its way, but the car was faster and it flew right _through_ her before it crashed into the Grill, the explosion setting the building on fire before it collapsed, the remnants of it burning in flames.

"These may be your memories, but now I'm controlling them," Amanda said, suddenly appearing in front of Elena whose eyes darted from the charred building to her. "It will save us time and trouble if you finally accept that. And I'm sure that you'll thank me, eventually, anyway" she continued, undeterred, despite a disdainful grimace on Elena's face.

"Thank you for what?"

"For cleaning your memory. When you wake up, you won't remember what it was like to be a vampire. All of your memories of the time when you were a vampire will be wiped out. You won't remember anything past that accident on the bridge."

xxxdelenaxxx

"When did you become so whiny?" Rebekah asked sharply, giving Bonnie a narrowed-eyes look from above one of the grimoires.

"Hey, stop that, OK?" Jeremy said warningly, shooting Rebekah a glare before slumping on the ground next to Bonnie.

They'd decided to go to the abandoned building where Rebekah had said Enzo had mentioned having his headquarters and despite the fact that Bonnie wasn't too thrilled about choosing that particular spot for their safe harbor, she'd agreed.

They'd already spent almost an hour reading the spells with Rebekah and although the words were now making to Bonnie more sense than before, she was still very much at a loss as to what to do with them.

"I'm just saying that I don't know what to _do _with these spells. I don't know how to make them... happen, work, whatever. That's not being whiny. That's just the truth," Bonnie retorted, thrusting up her chin. She doubted if Rebekah even suspected that if there was anyone who was beyond annoyed with her lack of magic at the moment, it was Bonnie herself.

Rebekah rolled her eyes. "You can channel the power of some other witch to kick things off." Explaining the simplest things to everyone was beginning to really irritate her.

"Oh that is very helpful, thank you," Bonnie said sardonically, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What about all those witches in New Orleans?" Jeremy asked with a grimace, wondering if they should try contacting Verona, the witch that Elena and him had gone to see in Italy. At least they knew how to find her, which couldn't be said about Liv and Luke who had disappeared without a trace. Granted Caroline _had_ snapped Luke's neck, but-

"Are you serious?" Rebekah's snarl interrupted Jeremy's train of thought. "How not up-to-date are you? They wanted to _murder_ an infant!"

"Caroline mentioned some witch named Davina..." Bonnie started, vaguely recalling Caroline's rant concerning her and Stefan's involuntary side trip to New Orleans.

"First of all, I don't know if she'd be willing to help," Rebekah said after a brief moment of consideration. "Second of all, she's a newbie witch with anger management problems and I don't know if she even knows what she herself is doing."

"Well, she knew how to bring Mikael back," Jeremy observed in a grim voice.

Rebekah's eyes darted to him. "Because _he_ told her how to do it."

"Alright." Bonnie raised her hands, silencing them both. "What about... channeling the power from my ancestors?" she asked, giving Jeremy an inquiring look, remembering him mentioning that. "Or... the spirits?" She frowned, not sure if the ancestors and the spirits weren't actually the same thing, but deciding not to dwell on all the details too much right now. She was barely navigating her way through all of these supernatural facts anyway. "Or nature? Or something like that?" Bonnie carried on with the questions, hoping that she'd eventually manage to say something that ignited a flicker of encouraging enthusiasm in Jeremy's eyes. But unfortunately, so far, he looked predominantly skeptical.

Bonnie groaned inwardly, every fibre of her body beginning to hurt out of mere sense of hopelessness. Ever since Damon had told her that it was her grandmother who had brought them back to life, she couldn't get rid of a nagging certainty that there must've been a reason for them to wake up in this particular place. Even if her Grams had done it unwittingly, there must've been a reason. It was like a missing puzzle piece, the very last one but also the one containing the crucial part of the picture. She just _had to _find it. She had to get it back.

She just had to get it back. Bonnie squinted into the distance, feeling a twinge of warmth pierce through her heart. She _wanted_ to get it back. _"If the situation was reversed, would you do it for me?"_

_She would, _Bonnie thought a little breathlessly, the memory clearer than the last time, than the first time it had sprung to her mind. The muffled sounds of a party and Elena vehemently arguing with her... But she was not to be swayed. Because _she would_.

Bonnie drew a breath, glancing at Jeremy. They would've done it for her. They would've done _everything_ for her and they _had_. Just like she'd done, apparently, everything she could've done. Maybe that was the real magic. Maybe that was where it was really coming from? From that clash between all the love she felt and all the love that was directed toward her.

"What happened with all that magic in Mystic Falls?" Rebekah asked, struck by an idea. "The Travelers' spell, I know," she said quickly before Jeremy managed to interrupt. "But all that magic couldn't have just disappeared. It's probably just... suppressed. Maybe you could access it?"

She looked at Bonnie and Bonnie blinked rapidly, not sure if she should find the question frustrating or flattering. How was she supposed to know?

"What about your niece?"

Bonnie's eyes shifted between Jeremy and Rebekah who looked positively puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"Matt said she's been doing some magic."

Rebekah chuckled humorlessly. "Hope? Doing magic? What's that supposed to mean? She's six months old!"

"I don't know if channeling magic from a baby would be a good idea anyway," Bonnie said cautiously. "It sounds rather risky and dangerous."

Rebekah's mouth twitched and Bonnie wasn't quite sure what to make of a look Rebekah gave her, especially that it seemed to be accompanied by an odd, faint, exasperated yet warm smile.

But then Rebekah's expression changed and she straightened up, her eyes widening in sudden dismay.

Jeremy and Bonnie exchanged uncertain looks while Rebekah's eyes wandered around the empty space surrounding them. She stormed to her feet and put her hands to her head with a grimace.

"What if they weren't tracking me?" She whispered, still not looking at them. "If that Augustine doctor's daughter is a witch... What if they were after Hope?"

Jeremy gave her a confused look. "Why would-" he started by then remembered what Caroline had said about there being some kind of a prophecy that the baby would bring the destruction to all the witches. "But it sounds like the baby _is_ a witch," he reasoned. "How can a witch bring destruction to her own kind?"

"If she can do magic in a place that doesn't have magic, because it's being suppressed there..." Bonnie muttered with a frown, trying to follow some vague thread of logic in her head. "Doesn't it mean that she can, somehow, _absorb_ all that magic? Maybe that's what is meant by bringing destruction to all the witches?" Bonnie continued, a little rejuvenated by her ability to draw any kind of at least remotely sensible conclusions out of all those crazy pieces of information she'd been given. "Maybe she's able to take away their powers by absorbing _all_ the magic?"

"But she's a baby, so if she does it, if she's somehow doing it already, she isn't doing it on purpose and she can't know how to use it." Rebekah sat down again, her head spinning with all the incredulous thoughts. "But maybe she could, I don't know, awaken your powers by absorbing them and then if you could channel all that power that she has-"

Bonnie didn't even have enough time to _begin_ wrapping her mind around what Rebekah was saying when Jeremy cut in, not really making the matters much clearer.

"Of course she can't know what she's doing. It must be some kind of an unconscious, subconscious mechanism. Matt merely mentioned out loud that he didn't have a room that would be appropriate for a baby and your niece somehow made _everything_ in the room appear. Maybe if he mentioned that she should give the power she has to Bonnie..."

"Wait. Did it ever happen with you?" Bonnie asked, giving Rebekah a questioning look, trying to be the voice of reason, feeling like they were just making overoptimistic assumptions. "Why would your niece 'make miracles' at the request of some random stranger and not her aunt? Or her parents? Or whoever else was taking care of her since she was born?"

Rebekah seemed to ponder this for a while with a frown until, suddenly, the grim, confused look faded off her face, replaced by a smile, that Bonnie thought was strangely, deeply wistful. "Because he's human," Rebekah said quietly and a little sadly, looking at the ground.

Then her eyes shifted back to Bonnie and Bonnie was once again caught in between two conflicting emotions... Unless feeling afraid and fearless weren't exactly conflicting emotions, she thought abstractly when out of the corner of her eye she noticed that even Jeremy smiled weakly at Rebekah's next words:

"This is going to sound cheesy, but... if there's one witch on this planet I wouldn't mind being all-powerful... it's you."

xxxdelenaxxx

"You do remember you're human, right?" Alaric muttered and cleared his throat in a grimly apologetic manner when Damon shot him an unamused sideways glance as they walked up the steps leading onto Dr. August's house's porch. "Just making sure."

"Well, this isn't going to stop me from applying appropriate methods of persuasion, if that's what you're asking," Damon said with a frown, knocking on the door so loudly Alaric considered suggesting that perhaps a more diplomatic approach could've been better, but the door opened before he had a chance to suggest anything.

A middle-aged woman with a friendly smile appeared in the doorway and as surprised as she looked at having visitors at this hour, she didn't seem upset at all.

"James! What a surprise!"

"It's Damon," Damon corrected rather brusquely and Alaric smiled as cheerfully as he could to divert Mrs. August's attention from Damon's tone. "Could we come in?"

"Of course!" Mrs. August said pleasantly. "Please, come in," she said letting them both in and Alaric just hoped it wasn't a trap, but rather only some vague, prospective son-in-law sentiments at play. "You wouldn't believe it, but we're actually eating dinner right now. My husband came back so late-" Mrs. August trailed off when Damon headed straight for the dining room in fast, decisive strides.

"Where are they?" He asked sharply right away, before Dr. August even had enough time to look up from his plate.

Mrs. August looked between Damon and her husband in confusion, while Alaric kept shooting wary glances around the room and into the hallway.

"I'm sorry," Dr. August started after a briefest moment of hesitation, slowly putting his fork away. "I'm not sure what-"

He stopped in mid-sentence while his wife stifled a bewildered scream when Damon grabbed a handful of the tablecloth and pulled it off the table so violently that all the tableware, dishes, porcelain cups and cutlery crashed noisily to the floor.

"Where are they?" Damon repeated and Dr. August moved, albeit rather sluggishly, his gaze from the mess on the floor to him.

"I truly don't know what you're talking about," the doctor said, rising to his feet, regarding Damon carefully, his voice so different from the voice Damon had got used to over the last three months.

The seemingly natural, eager friendliness was gone, replaced but cold sensibility and Damon couldn't help feeling a little ridiculously sad and disappointed by that.

"Your daughter seems to have kidnapped a few friends of ours," Alaric cut in, his voice low and even. "We thought you might know where she is. We just want to find them and leave."

Dr. August took a step around the table and made his way across the room. "I haven't seen Amanda in a few hours, but I can't recall her mentioning that kidnapping was on her to-do list for today."

"Well, a few hours ago I didn't know that killing people was on my to-do list for today either," Damon deadpanned.

"Don't you think it's a little preposterous, throwing threats around, while for all you know you may not be able to walk out of here alive?" There was something eerily calm about Dr. August's tone that Alaric decidedly didn't like.

"Ditto," Damon said in a grim, sing-song voice. "And I hope you're insured," he added, making a hushed explosion noise.

"That's twenty three centers worldwide, right?" Alaric said, taking a leap of faith and hoping that Enzo's research was correct and therefore would now helpfully validate their empty threats. "Not counting all the private residences," he added, looking around the room.

"She just wants to help them," Mrs. August blurted out, glancing at her husband whose eyes flashed, but he seemed to stop himself from silencing his wife.

Damon whirled around to face her. "Where are they?"

His voice was on the verge of breaking, his eyes glimmering with desperation that Mrs. August seemed to notice and she hesitated for a second before she said in a low voice:

"They're probably in the old hospital. It's a building right behind our hospital."

Damon stared at her for a second, not sure if she was driven by genuine compassion or perhaps just intended to send them into a trap, but either way, it seemed that she was at least telling the truth as far as the location was concerned.

He made to head toward the door, but then stopped abruptly in his tracks and gave Mrs. August a grimly irritated look. "There are no other buildings behind the hospital."

But Mrs. August didn't seem thrown off by his statement and after holding his gaze for a second added. "Not any that you can see with human eyes."


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:** Thank you **SO MUCH** for your amazing reviews! *huggles*

I'm not sure how to describe this chapter (other than that it's very long, obviously lol), but the next chapter's going to be a RIOT ;)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 18**

Matt wasn't a stranger to weirdness. _All_ of his friends had either become or turned out to be doppelgangers, vampires, witches, werewolves, hybrids or at the very least vampire hunters. He'd got dumped because he'd proposed. He'd lost a girlfriend to his best friend. His other best friend had sacrificed her life to save his. He'd died a couple of times, visited the Other Side, seen ghosts, agreed to being fed on by a newbie vampire, agreed to having his neck snapped by a guy who hated him, participated in morally dubious activities in Prague... and sometimes he thought he might be in love with a 1000-year-old girl who had almost killed him once... Yet, Matt was convinced that nothing weirder than what was happening right now had ever happened to him before.

"You want me to tell a six-month-old infant to _synchronize energies _with Bonnie," Matt repeated, enunciating each word and raising his eyebrows, because there was supernatural stuff and there was stuff that made no sense regardless.

But Jeremy's tone on the other side of the line remained stunningly sensible. "That's the phrase used in the grimoire."

Matt blinked, not sure if Jeremy really believed _that_ was what Matt considered the most ridiculous part of the request. "OK. I feel stupid for saying this, but... shouldn't we call Klaus first or something?"

A brief, muffled noise that followed the question indicated that someone snatched the phone out of Jeremy's hand and Matt straightened up at the sound of a familiar voice that suddenly resounded in his ear.

"Matt, just do it. We have to check if this will even work. I'm not going to waste time asking Nik anything," Rebekah said impatiently.

"Yeah, I didn't mean to sound like I care whether I live or die a horrible death. I was just thinking out loud," Matt said, fighting a ridiculous smile that threatened to break onto his face at the mere sound of Rebekah's voice. He had to consciously stop himself from asking her to talk a little more, about anything, just so he could listen to her voice for a few seconds longer.

Rebekah stifled a snort. "I know channeling energy is not a perfectly safe thing to do," she continued, resuming her serious voice. "But it's not safe when someone's giving off their personal energy. If our theory is correct, Hope's gathered more energy than she can handle. It may even be good for her to give some of it away."

"Yes, but like you said, it's just a theory," Matt argued tentatively.

"You'll be watching her," Rebekah said after a pause with a small sigh. "If something bad starts happening with her you'll tell us and we'll stop."

"I'll ask Dr. Fell to stop by. I think she can read infants better than me," Matt complied after a moment of consideration and he wasn't sure, but he _felt_ that Rebekah smiled, so he asked. "What?"

"These are your friends' lives that are on the line and yet you're worrying about my niece."

"Funny you should mention it, because I was also wondering why you're risking so much to save people you don't care about? There's nothing in it for you."

"Oh, just on the contrary," Rebekah said with the faintest hint of amusement in her voice. "Rest assured that I have my ulterior motives," she added, biting back a smile that nonetheless flickered across her face when Matt replied with a smile on his own:

"I hope so."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena was running through the forest, trying to think only about running, trying to remember the forest without focusing on any memory in particular, hoping that it'd keep her from being followed.

Or at least from having her memories erased. She wanted to wake up, come back to the reality, but she was afraid that if Amanda wasn't bluffing, waking up would mean losing some of her memories forever.

Gritting her teeth, Elena stopped near one of the trees and pressing her back against it looked up at the dark sky.

It was true that some of her vampire memories were probably her worst memories. She wouldn't mind forgetting about Connor or about Jeremy's death or about that waitress whose name she didn't even know... But it didn't mean that she was afraid of _not_ forgetting. She didn't _need_ to forget anything. Not anymore. There was nothing more beautiful than feeling love, nothing more wonderful than loving others and feeling loved, but she also wanted to feel guilt and pain, because only feeling everything, not suppressing or forgetting, but feeling everything meant being alive. She needed to remember everything to truly be herself.

Wincing, Elena slid to the ground, her back still against the tree. There was also another thing. Some of her vampire memories were her happiest memories and the mere thought of losing any of them was breaking her heart.

Elena inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to calm down. Giving in to despair and frustration wasn't going to get her anywhere, but it wasn't helping that she had to keep herself from recalling any of Damon's words that could make her feel better right now to avoid the risk of endangering her memories. She just tried to think about him, think about them without thinking about the past.

Hiding her head in her hands Elena closed her eyes, but then she abruptly looked up, startled by the soft sound of rustling leaves.

She jumped to her feet and looked around. In all of her memories she'd previously been to, the scenery and people had always been completely still, so now she didn't know what to make of the wind blowing through the trees above her. She wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad sign.

She was sure, however, that right now she wasn't thinking of any memories. She was surrounded by thoughts of a different kind.

Glancing around with a hesitant smile Elena realized that a moment ago she'd started thinking about something else... She'd started thinking... about the future.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What am I doing wrong?" Bonnie whispered in frustration, opening her eyes and looking at Rebekah who was shaking her head, updating Matt over the phone that still nothing was happening.

"Can't we just go there?" Damon suggested impatiently, glancing toward the empty space where the old hospital was supposed to be – and apparently was, because Alaric and Rebekah could see it.

Bonnie couldn't, but was hoping, like all of them, that the energy trick would work and she'd start seeing it.

They'd decided to meet here in hope that no negotiations would've been necessary; that with Bonnie, Alaric and Rebekah being able to see the invisible to human eyes building, it might've just been possible for them to barge in, find Elena, Enzo, Stefan and Caroline and get them out. And had they been ambushed by Amanda, Bonnie could've used some of the energy channeled from Hope... It was a very good, simple plan, really, except that it was becoming clearer and clearer that this plan was apparently solely based on wishful thinking, because Bonnie still couldn't see anything other than the empty field, just like Jeremy and Damon.

"I'll go," Alaric said at last with a determined frown. "We'll at least know if they're really there."

Damon's eyes darted to him and he nodded quickly. "Let's go."

Alaric grimaced. "Damon, wait. What's the point of you going there? You won't be able to see anything. You won't even know where you're going."

"I'll... walk after you," Damon muttered hastily on the verge of angry irritation, his eyebrows furrowed. There was something so indescribably annoying about not being able to just do what he wanted to do right now without relying on anything or anyone else. "You can tell me when you see them and I can-"

Alaric gave him a disbelievingly exasperated look.

"I don't think that makes much sense," Jeremy interrupted cautiously, exchanging a quick look with Alaric.

Bonnie looked between all of them, biting her lip and beginning to feel utterly terrible. The worst part was that she could _feel_ the energy flowing to her, but it seemed as if she was surrounded by some kind of a wall and the energy was crashing into this invisible barrier – and then rushing away from her instead of rushing toward her. What was she doing wrong? She was trying to think of the fact that she _was_ a witch, that she _was_ able to do magic in the past, that she _could_ do it.

"I'll go with you too," Bonnie said on an impulse, charging forward. "Maybe I'll start seeing this place once I'll be _in_ it," she said, glancing at Jeremy who despite having every intention of being encouraging, couldn't help looking sadly skeptical.

"I don't think this is how it works," Rebekah pointed out with a dejected smile.

Bonnie gave her a grim look, feeling even more determined to do it now that everyone seemed so dismissive of the idea from the get-go. She looked at Damon and felt a little better when she saw that at least he wasn't saying anything against the idea, although that was probably mostly due to his reckless, vehement determination to do _something –_ which she shared and wasn't going to let go of, especially that she didn't have much else to hold on to at the moment.

"I don't think-" Alaric started, but Bonnie cut him off, hoping that her determination would eventually make everyone give in.

"Let's go," Bonnie said and grabbed Damon's hand-

"Bonnie!" Jeremy jumped toward her when she almost lost her balance taking a hasty step backwards and dropping Damon's hand as if it had burned her.

"What happened?" Damon asked, blinking, his voice a little more hopeful than confused.

Bonnie shook her head and for a moment seemed at a loss for words. "When I touched you I saw..." she said at last rather shakily, her forehead creasing, but then her expression brightened and her head snapped up. "Maybe that's what I was doing wrong?"

"Hold on," Rebekah whispered into the phone, squinting.

"All this time I was thinking about the past," Bonnie said, closing her eyes. She tried to concentrate on the fleeting images that flashed through her head. Images and words... and she couldn't quite tell the difference between them... "While I should've been thinking about the future."

"Matt says-" Rebekah started, but then trailed off when Bonnie whirled around and chuckled brokenly at the sight.

She could see it now.

It felt as if she'd emerged from below murky waters, her eyes stinging from what felt like sand when she looked at the white-washed brick building with a bittersweet sense of relief. "Let's go."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena began by imagining the simplest thing: a grainy forest road leading to a sandy beach.

The view, when she stopped on top of a wooden staircase, was breathtaking and without averting her eyes from the turquoise blue sea, Elena ran down the steps, making her shoes disappear before her feet touched the sand.

It wasn't very difficult to keep herself from concentrating on her memories when she could make her mind focus on something else. There was no end to future scenarios she could come up with. She didn't want to reveal her dreams, just in case her imagination could be stalked by Amanda the same way her memories had been. But making vague, flexible plans was another thing and creating a summer vacation gateway seemed like a pretty safe idea.

Of course it didn't really solve the problem, Elena thought with a sigh, slumping onto the sand and staring pensively at the waves. Avoiding Amanda in this imaginary world was one thing. But the threat of some of her memories disappearing when she'd regain her consciousness was another. She still didn't know how to prevent that from happening.

"Elena."

Elena straightened up and after a moment of hesitation rose to her feet and turned around, her eyes brightening in a smile. "Bonnie?"

Bonnie's eyes widened in surprise. "Can you hear me?" she asked hopefully.

"I can hear you and see you," Elena said, taking a few steps forward, only then noticing that Bonnie wasn't looking at her directly, as if she could only identify the direction her voice was coming from. "Can you see me?"

"Yes," Bonnie said with a frown. "I can see you, but... it doesn't _look_ like you're saying anything..." Elena blinked in confusion, but then understanding dawned on her when Bonnie added. "We found you, but I think you're unconscious. Stefan, Caroline and Enzo are too. But don't worry, we will wake you up-"

"Bonnie, she said that when I wake up, I won't remember anything from the time when I was a vampire," Elena cut in with a grimace and then snorted mirthlessly. "She said she'd turn me 'mentally human.' I hope she was bluffing, but... What if it's true? What if it's going to be like that for all of us? Caroline would wake up not even knowing vampires were real. Stefan would wake up thinking it's 1864 and who knows what Enzo would be thinking and what year it'd be for him."

Elena looked at Bonnie, waiting for her to respond, but Bonnie's head was now turned to the side and she was repeating Elena's words to someone who must've been standing next to her in the real world, someone Elena couldn't see. She was about to ask Bonnie who she was with, but then Bonnie addressed her again.

"Elena, I don't know if I can do anything about that," Bonnie said quietly, wincing briefly. "I barely managed to get in here."

"It's OK," Elena said with a small, reassuring smile. "If there's no other way-"

"I think you told me once that there's always another way," Bonnie said with a broken smile glancing around and Elena wondered what she was seeing. "How did I do it the first time?" Bonnie suddenly asked after a moment of silence, her voice acquiring a note of desperate urgency. "Jeremy said you were the first person I told about this. How did I become a witch before?"

"You didn't become a witch, Bonnie. For a long time you just didn't believe that you were a witch," Elena said, tilting her head to the side and looking at Bonnie who still seemed to be looking through her rather than at her. "You told me that your Grams was telling you about that and that you predicted a few things, but I think the first time when you said you _saw_ something was on the first day of school three years ago. You said that when you touched my hand-" Elena trailed off when suddenly Bonnie's body flickered, like an image on a broken TV screen and she vanished.

Elena called Bonnie's name, but then her eyes flew to her feet and she noticed that she was standing in the water that was rising surprisingly fast.

She turned around toward the sea and her eyes widened at the sight of an enormous wave climbing higher and higher, towering above her, overshadowing all the light and Elena didn't even have enough time to close her eyes before it crashed down on her.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Did you really think you could just come here, get them and leave?"

Amanda glanced fleetingly at the four operating tables on her left while throwing Bonnie, Damon and Alaric against the walls, each of them landing in a different part of the room and Damon thought it was particularly frustrating to be thrown against things he couldn't even see.

Springing back to his feet he glanced around what looked like a completely empty field of half-dried grass. He shifted his eyes between Bonnie and Alaric and once he was sure they were fairly alright, he leaped forward.

"Damon, watch out!" Bonnie called to him a second too late, because in his attempt to get to Amanda he ran into the operating tables that were invisible to him and the collision seemed to be real enough, because he caused the table that Stefan was lying on to topple over.

In an instinctive attempt to stop whatever was happening, Damon blindly reached out, his hand landing on one of Elena's hands, his eyes widening at the sudden contact.

Having noticed the expression on Damon's face Bonnie blinked at the realization that he must've felt something... which was strange, because if he couldn't see anything in here, he probably _shouldn't_ feel anything either.

Bonnie's eyes darted to Alaric who tried to intervene, but her gaze was absent as she almost stopped paying any attention to what was going on, her thoughts beginning to run through her head at an increased speed. If Damon could feel what he wasn't 'supposed' to feel, why couldn't she do what she wasn't 'supposed' to do?

Bonnie rose to her feet, thinking back to what she'd been thinking about earlier today: that magic was in fact nothing else but love. Love _was_ magic. Bonnie's hands rolled into fists and she frowned. Or perhaps she'd watched too many movies in the last three months. Either way, this wasn't the best time to question her doubtful theories, especially that, for once, they were actually being helpful.

"I don't want to hurt any of you!" Amanda exclaimed in agitation, extending her hands and suddenly making it impossible for them to move.

"That's a peculiar way of showing it," Alaric grunted, watching Bonnie out of the corner of his eye and deciding that averting Amanda's attention from her was probably the best course of action right now.

"I don't care about your intentions," Damon said with a grimace and Alaric acknowledged with relief that this statement was hopefully going to win Bonnie even more time to collect her thoughts, because Amanda seemed genuinely hurt by Damon's words.

"See? That's what being a vampire did to you. These are the remains of that. Humans care about intentions, because intentions matter. Because they influence our actions. Vampires are only influenced by hunger, by their thirst for blood!"

"Do you really think that?"

Amanda snorted derisively. "And what was driving you when you were murdering all those people?What kind of intentions? Beliefs? Ideals? _Feelings_?"

Narrowing his eyes at her in an annoyed glare, Alaric was about to retort, but Damon cut him off.

"What I was doing and why... is on me," he said in a tone that was hard, angry, sad and bitter, but also calm and clear. "You can't make assumptions about everyone based on me."

"That's not what I meant," Amanda said, shaking her head. "I don't blame you. I don't blame any of you. It's not your fault. It's like a disease that takes control and there's nothing you can do. Sadly, in case of this disease the only way to cure it is to eliminate those who carry it. But I don't want to kill them," she added quickly gesturing to the empty space between her and Damon where Alaric and Bonnie could see Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo. "I can take their minds back to where they belong. I can make their _minds_ human again. They'll be able to start over and help _everyone_ by killing other vampires, not innocent people."

"You want to turn them into killing machines and you consider that the right thing to do?" Bonnie exclaimed and Alaric noticed that the brick walls surrounding them began to rattle. He also noticed that there was a new edge to Bonnie's tone.

She was listening to the entire conversation and finding it strange how even the words that should shock her, seemed to be giving her some abstract, inexplicable strength instead. Somehow she was certain that there was a truth in between the words that Amanda was missing entirely. That she didn't know, didn't understand... And it was that truth that Bonnie suddenly found herself feeling protective of. That truth... These people...

"_You'll find your way to the place, to the people that are your happiness, wherever that is, whoever they are."_

"They already _are_ killing machines," Amanda said with an unapologetic huff and then glanced at the walls.

She threw out her arm, but to her surprise the gesture didn't affect Bonnie in the slightest. The walls surrounding them were still shaking, beginning to disintegrate brick by brick. She tried again, but then to her further bewilderment, the force she was using seemed to bounce back and it pinned her against the wall.

Bonnie shuddered, a little startled, but then resumed her stance and focused on the tingling sensation of _something_ coursing through her and she briefly thought she was just being oddly aware of the blood flowing through her veins, but then she realized that it wasn't blood, but something lighter, heavier, brighter...

She couldn't quite find the right words to describe it. But it didn't feel overwhelming or frightening. In a way, it felt rather intoxicating and Bonnie closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling until a loud noise broke her concentration and she opened her eyes to the building exploding around them as if a strong, tempestuous wind was mercilessly tearing the walls and the roof apart.

Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo were now all down on the floor and Alaric jumped toward them, trying to keep them from being blown away into some unknown direction. Without thinking twice about it, he tossed Elena toward Damon, who still couldn't see her, but apparently could feel her in his arms, and then, for the first time, Alaric found himself grateful for his weird super-vampire status that allowed him to grab and hold three people at the same time.

Bonnie exhaled shakily and the wind began calming down little by little. She wasn't really sure how she'd done what she'd done... whatever it was, but then she was struck by the idea that perhaps she was over-thinking this whole thing.

There were spells, of course, specific ones, she knew, but they were for specific things and she wasn't doing anything specific right now. She was just trying to protect the people she cared about.

"Let them wake up. Let them wake up," Bonnie started chanting under her breath, murmuring simple sentences that would describe as precisely as possible what it was exactly that she was trying to achieve. "Let them wake up with their memories intact. Let everyone see everything that's here. Let them wake up. Let them-"

She got so lost in repeating the words over and over again that she wasn't even aware of Amanda trying to thwart her efforts. When Bonnie opened her eyes she could see something that looked like tiny grains of dust floating around, a rippling curtain of shimmering crumbs going up and down in a constant, horizontal motion.

"Elena!..." Damon breathed out when after a few moments of fighting to see anything at all through a blinding light that was suddenly emanating from everywhere, Elena materialized in his arms, her body limp in his arms. "Elena..." He stroked her cheeks with the back of his hand, wordlessly willing her to wake up.

"Can you see them all?" Alaric asked just to make sure, trying to shake Stefan into consciousness.

Damon glanced up and looked around. "Yes," he said with a frown and then his eyes widened and he whirled around to shield Elena from a beam of dark, purple light that was thrown their way.

Bonnie's head turned to the side at the sound of Damon's muffled scream, her eyes widening in indignation when she realized that Amanda was targeting Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo again, apparently trying to keep them from waking up. Closing her eyes, Bonnie resumed her chanting, hoping that she wasn't just being naïve that it was going to work. It should work. It had to work.

She wanted it to work.

Almost simultaneously, the four vampires sat up gasping for air as if they were being awaken from a bad dream.

"Are you alright?" Alaric asked worriedly, grasping Caroline's hand when she looked so confused that he half-expected her to spring to her feet and zoom away in panic.

"Elena?" Damon cupped Elena's face in his hands, hoping that even if her memories were gone, she was feeling well otherwise.

But then something hit his back and from Elena's reaction he guessed that the purple light must've set his clothes on fire.

"Damon!" Throwing her arms around him, Elena tried to douse the flames with her bare hands.

"Elena!" Damon caught her wrists, horrified – and relieved that she seemed fully awake and conscious enough to behave in her typical, reckless way. "Don't do this," he said with a brief smile, grabbing a handful of her hair and pulling her in for a quick kiss. "Are you alright?" He asked against her lips, drawing back, suddenly anxious what she was going to think if she didn't remember-

Stefan's and Enzo's screams interrupted them, because Alaric wasn't able to block all the purple rays at the same time. Tugging Caroline away from the trajectory of the attack, he shielded her with his body, but unfortunately there was nothing he could do for Enzo and Stefan.

"Bonnie, watch out!" Stefan called out and there was something in his voice that thankfully didn't scream 1864.

Then, as if to further confirm Damon's rather joyous suspicion that everything was alright, memories-wise, Elena pressed a hurried kiss to his lips before standing up while holding onto him.

Opting for an unimpressive act of ducking, Bonnie avoided a ball of shimmering, greenish light, but wouldn't have probably avoided the second one, if it wasn't for Enzo who grabbed her hand and tossed her to the side, the light missile hitting him instead.

Bonnie shot an angry glare Amanda's way and taking a deep breath, tried to draw upon all the energy that was boiling inside her, slowly and calmly at first, but then with more confidence, more heat and she could feel the air around her changing its consistency and sprouting silvery flakes of light into every direction-

But then she felt her energy dwindle down when she noticed that there was a golden thread of some sort, a thin, shiny cord that seemed to be coming out from _inside_ of Elena, Stefan, Caroline and Enzo, stretch across the space... and end in Amanda's hand.

"I can kill them with one flick of my hand," Amanda said without waiting for Bonnie to ask the question.

"No, you can't," Bonnie replied sternly, resuming what she had been doing, but to her surprise the energy that she was trying to direct at the vampires to free them from this strange entanglement was dispersing in different directions in chaotic patterns.

"Maybe I'm not a Bennett witch, but you can't beat me. You can't control your magic without your memories," Amanda said with a fleeting, sour smile. "You may have the power, but you don't know how to use it. Right now, you don't stand a chance against me."

"Did you erase our memories?" Bonnie asked, struck by the thought, terrified but also baffled by the suspicion, because she remembered Damon telling her that it was her grandmother who had told them they could've come back to life, but the price was losing their memories... But how could her grandmother have known that some witch would've decided to wipe out their past? Why her grandmother wouldn't have told them what exactly was going to happen? Had she made it happened? Had she predicted that?

Why had they come back to this particular place?

"I didn't want to erase them," Amanda said, glancing at Damon. "But my father wouldn't let you live if you kept any of them, so I had to erase them all."

Bonnie stared at her, for a second getting lost in her thoughts, trying to put all the elements of the mystery together. Why were they here?

"Bonnie!" Caroline screamed and tried to zoom toward her, but Amanda tripped her and then threw a fiery icicle Bonnie's way.

Elena inhaled sharply and snatching herself out of Damon's embrace jumped toward Bonnie, swirling her around, the weapon missing them both and bursting into tiny, blue flames right next to them.

Bonnie's eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat when she suddenly realized that she was afraid. Not for herself, but for everyone else. It was a bittersweet kind of feeling, because while it was making her anxious, terrified and worried, it also felt comfortingly familiar, like a link, a hidden connection between this moment now and the past she didn't remember.

"Are you alri-" Elena started, but then felt as if every muscle of her body was being split into a bundle of nerves that were in turn being pulled by someone, her body dragged backwards and hurting as if a million of needles were piercing through it.

And that link had a name, Bonnie thought in awe, in fear, in exhilaration. It was _danger_ that triggered it all.

Perhaps that was why her grandmother had sent them her, of all places. Because she'd known they would've been in danger here and she must've known, Bonnie thought, following a train of thought that was becoming clearer and firmer and more astounding in her head with every second, that they would've wanted, most of all, to come back home and perhaps the only way for them to come back home was to be in danger, because only danger could trigger- Because maybe it was danger that had triggered it the first time!.. Because only danger could-

Elena's hand slipped out of Bonnie's, but Bonnie didn't even move. She stood frozen to the spot, looking at her outstretched hand, her fingers trembling at the lost contact while Elena was being pulled away from her.

The same thing was happening with Enzo, Caroline and Stefan.

Damon grabbed Elena and managed to grab Stefan, glancing at Alaric who was trying to hold Caroline and Enzo in place.

But resisting the force that was pulling them toward Amanda seemed impossible. It was now pushing everyone toward her, the threads in her hand seemingly unbreakable despite having an appearance of thin, transparent rays of yellowish light.

"If the threads break, they will die," Amanda warned.

"What the hell are you doing?" Enzo muttered angrily, trying to get hold of the thread coming out of his chest, but his hand just kept going right through it.

"I told you in the projection. You'll lose your vampire memories, be almost human again, become an Augustine."

"You're insane!" Caroline hissed in annoyance, stifling a cry at the pain caused by the thread stuck in her chest. It felt as if a countless number of little hooks were sunk in her body and tugging on every part of it.

"It's almost done," Amanda said with eerie tranquility. "It's like a sire bond. I'm sure you've heard of it. You'll be sired to the Augustine Society. You'll be truly happy helping us, I promise. And like I said, you'll feel almost human."

"No!..." Elena whispered, shaking her head and looking up at Damon whose arm was still firmly wrapped around her, but his eyes kept darting to the thread springing out of Elena's chest that looked like it was about to be severed.

"If the thread breaks, she'll die," Amanda repeated, apparently noticing what was happening.

Alaric looked between everyone in dismay, so focused on what was going on that it was almost only accidentally that he realized that Bonnie had been completely quiet for more than a few seconds.

She was standing motionlessly, staring straight ahead with unseeing, glittering eyes, her breathing even, but very shallow.

Wielding another icicle made out of flames, Amanda sent Damon and Alaric to the ground, dark blue flames rising around them.

Helplessly trying to fight against being dragged away by the golden thread along with Enzo, Stefan and Caroline, Elena screamed. She was beginning to see her surroundings only as an amorphous, blurry shape and she realized that she was crying, that something horrible, something irreversible was happening and that she was going to lose more than just some of her memories. She was going to lose herself, she was going to lose everything-

Elena felt the tears roll down her cheeks and she closed her eyes. It was a feeling similar to what she'd felt when she'd been running madly through the forest, trying to get away from Katherine's spell.

She couldn't believe that something like that was happening again, that her life was going to be torn away from her again, that she was going to forget her past, that she wasn't going to have the future she wanted to have, that she wasn't going to feel what she wanted to feel, be whom she wanted to be, that she'd lose, again, everything that she'd been fighting so hard for, that she'd recovered against all odds and was going to cherish forever if only-

"I saw a crow."

Elena's eyes fluttered open in what felt like neverending slow-motion.

She didn't know if it was her who had somehow stopped moving or if Amanda had stopped pulling them toward her or if the entire world had stopped altogether... All she knew was that there was something in Bonnie's voice that rendered everyone silent, even if no one else was able to understand the meaning behind her words, the words that brought tears to Elena's eyes even before they fully registered in her mind.

Bonnie's voice wasn't loud or quiet, happy, sad or angry, hopeful or defeated. It just sounded broken. It sounded as if it was breaking with every word. Over and over again. Each word was heavy with tears, each word seemed to be weighing Bonnie's entire figure down, pushing onto her shoulders, onto her thoughts, bringing more and more tears to her feverishly shining eyes.

Damon and Alaric jumped across the flames that vanished once they were clear of them.

"There was fog..." Bonnie continued and suddenly her voice seemed to be losing its innate brokenness. Suddenly it sounded all patched up, as if it was healing, syllable by syllable. "A man..."

Amanda's eyes narrowed in suspicious bewilderment. It didn't look like Bonnie was doing anything, her words making no sense whatsoever and yet...

Elena's breath caught in her throat and she choked on air, Amanda's eyes flying to her, darting between her and Bonnie as she was trying to decipher the significance of the words Bonnie was saying that only Elena seemed to understand.

"And I have this feeling..." Bonnie whispered and then to Amanda's and everyone else's further confusion she laughed and Elena laughed too, fresh tears springing to her eyes when ignoring the thread, not even knowing or caring if it was still there, Elena whirled around, her gaze meeting Bonnie's when she added, her voice shaking so much she was hardly able to get the words out. "That it's just the beginning."

Both Elena and Bonnie were crying and laughing at the same time and Amanda was beginning to feel annoyed by this, but then her blood froze in her veins when Bonnie's eyes shifted to her emanating with light she'd only suspected during these last three months, but had never seen.

Bonnie closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them again, white feathers were swirling everywhere. Elena grinned feverishly and when she turned around she landed in Damon's arms.

"She remembers," Elena whispered and Damon's eyes widened in surprise.

"I can do this," Bonnie whispered to herself when she heard Hope crying in her head.

She ended the connection and tried to find the strength within, tried to draw the power only from inside her mind, inside her heart.

With a frown Amanda realized that the white feathers that were swirling around everyone, especially Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo, were blocking her energy from impacting them and the threads in her hand that kept them linked to her were beginning to fade.

She tried to stop that from happening by countering Bonnie's energy with hers wasn't really working, so with the last, greatest effort, she splashed what looked like a cloud of dirty dust over the four of them.

Bonnie intensified her efforts, tears mixed with blood flowing down her face and at last she managed to start pushing back so hard that Amanda was thrown back so far away that they lost any sight of her.

All the four threads snapped at once.

Caroline, Stefan and Enzo dropped to the ground right in front of Alaric's eyes and when he looked to the side he noticed that Elena collapsed in Damon's arms.

"They're alive," Bonnie whispered, answering the dismayed looks on Damon's and Alaric's faces.

She slid to the ground and wiped the tears and blood off her face with the back of her hand, her breathing noisy and uneven.

She looked up as if she was seeing the sky for the first time, her nails digging into the ground and she couldn't quite decide if the breathtaking feeling pulsating in her head, in her chest was mostly regret or relief or perhaps just both, entwined.

"Are you alright?" Damon asked, cradling Elena to him and looking Bonnie up and down.

Bonnie nodded with a grim smile.

"Why did they lose consciousness?" Alaric asked, looking between Caroline, Stefan and Enzo.

"I couldn't-" Bonnie coughed and then drew a breath. "I had to choose what to protect while breaking the spell," she said with a grimace. "I couldn't protect everything. I chose to protect their lives," she said quietly, but Damon and Alaric still looked rather perplexed, so she added with a frown. "I couldn't protect their memories."

Alaric exhaled slowly. Damon blinked rapidly a few times before his eyes shifted to Elena.

"They lost all of their vampire memories," Bonnie said, wincing. "I'm sorry."

Damon's eyes darted to her. "You're sorry?" He echoed and Bonnie marveled inwardly at subconsciously expecting what he was going to say next. "You saved them," he said with a brief smile and a thankful nod.

But then after taking a look around at everyone his eyes returned to Elena with an involuntary sigh.

"_Do you see a future with me? Because that's all I see."_

With a weak half-grimace, half-smile Damon leaned his forehead against Elena's and closed his eyes.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:** Thank you SO MUCH for all of your stunning reviews! :):):)

In case you wondered, no, I'm not trying to check if there's a limit of words per chapter on this site lol I'm just determined for this story to have 22 chapters, but I don't want to rush it, hence chapters being triple-length lately. I hope you don't mind ^^

Dear "no no no": It's like you don't know me at all ;)

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 19**

"I'm sorry, but what are you waiting for? Come on, make haste. We have to go. We only have..." In an elaborate gesture Klaus pushed back one of his handcuffs and looked at his watch, "about forty minutes to cross the city line." He smiled, clasped his hands behind his back and looked between Hayley and Elijah with a cheerfully questioning look on his face.

"Are you serious?" Hayley asked with a grimace, her voice sharp.

"I have to admit," Elijah started slowly, shifting his eyes from Hayley to Klaus, "that I'm failing to see how we're supposed to defeat the witches here while not being here?" He extended his palms and put a mockingly confused expression onto his face.

"Exactly," Hayley agreed with a huff. "What's the use of them being powerless if we won't be able to be here and do anything to them? This 'plan'," she said, making quotation marks with her hands, "makes no sense."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Now we only have thirty-nine minutes left, but I shall repeat since your minds are apparently preoccupied with other important matters, I'm sure," Klaus said and his eyes lost a glint of amusement, but only for a second, "and therefore unable to process new information at an average speed. Let's try again." He drew a dramatic breath. "A certain old acquaintance of ours will transfer, with the help of a chapter from our sorely missed mother's spell book, the magic-blocking spell from Mystic Falls to New Orleans in..." Klaus trailed off to consult his watch, "thirty-eight minutes. All the witches here will lose their magic, werewolves won't be able to turn and all the vampires and hybrids who stay in the city will, sadly... or not so sadly, die." Klaus flashed Elijah and Hayley a complacent smile. "In other words, we're getting our home back."

"Yes," Elijah said, rising smoothly to his feet. "You see, Niklaus, that's exactly the part we don't understand." He glanced at Hayley who propped her head on her elbow and was looking at Klaus with impatient exasperation. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but there seems to be no logical connection between getting ourselves banished from our home and getting our home back."

Klaus sighed. "I'd explain it to you in greater detail, but if we don't leave in... thirty-seven minutes, we all will be dead and then there truly will no longer be any logical connection between us and anything else."

"What about Marcel?" Hayley asked, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I left him a voice message."

Elijah stifled a humorless smile. "That's very thoughtful of you. Hopefully it will cross his mind to check his phone before he dies in... thirty-six minutes?"

"That's not my fault he didn't pick up when I called," Klaus said with a shrug.

"Yeah, how rude of him," Hayley said, squinting.

"Are you ready or do you need to go get something before we go? A purse? A jacket?" Klaus paused before he continued with a smile flickering across his face. "A rattle? A plush toy?"

Hayley was looking around the room in annoyance, but then she froze and her eyes darted back to Klaus.

"You had such troubles understanding the first part of what I was saying that I didn't get a chance to move on to the second part and tell you that Hope is safe and sound and apparently wrecking a little havoc in Mystic Falls and perhaps it will be possible for the aforementioned acquaintance of ours to place a protection spell over her-" Klaus trailed off when after shooting him a disbelieving, frustrated glare Hayley stormed out of the room and out of the house, heading straight for the car.

"You could've started by telling her about that, you know," Elijah said evenly.

"Let's go," Klaus said, ignoring the remark and glancing at his watch once again. "I'm supposed to be on a duty rotation," he added with a small smirk and then also made his way toward the door, before Elijah had a chance to ask what he'd meant.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Well, that was an interesting experience," Alaric said with a sigh, watching the plane take off and disappear into the pale blue horizon. "I've never hijacked a medical plane before."

"Technically, they readily agreed to help us," Jeremy observed with a brief smile, assisting Damon in moving the stretchers to the side of the road.

He wondered if it was just his impression fueled by the latest events and those six months of living without actually feeling alive or perhaps there really was something different about the sky, the grass, the trees, the soil near home. Jeremy smiled to himself, thinking that it wasn't just Bonnie and Damon who were coming home. It was all of them.

"Which was quite shocking, considering how boring that compulsion speech was," Damon muttered, glancing at Bonnie who slumped down onto the grass nearby with the pages from Esther's grimoire in her hands.

Jeremy chuckled under his breath and Alaric shot both him and Damon an offended look. "If you have something to say, just say it."

"Your voice did sound a little robotic," Jeremy said with a small grimace.

"And you don't need to use 'please' and 'thank you' multiple times in every single sentence," Damon added and then turned around.

He looked between Elena, Stefan, Enzo and Caroline who were all lying on their respective stretchers, still unconscious. Reaching out, he gently took Elena's hand in his and brushed his thumb across her knuckles.

"Especially that it's a bit hypocritical to be overly polite while manipulating someone's mind," Rebekah pointed out with a mirthless grin.

Alaric snorted. "I see I can count on a full board of advisors as to how to be a professional vampire."

"If you don't mind being quiet for five minutes," Bonnie suddenly called out, silencing everyone.

The chapter from Esther's grimoire contained over three hundred swapping spells and although Bonnie had already located the spell necessary for lifting the Travelers' spell off Mystic Falls and moving it over to New Orleans, the spell was written in a codified way, parts of it hidden on different pages and she had to concentrate to put it all together.

Jeremy turned his head, watching Bonnie for a few seconds and marveling inwardly at how easily they moved on to their regularly scheduled supernatural drama without even getting a chance yet to talk about Bonnie retrieving her memories.

He found it admirable, but also slightly worrisome that Bonnie immediately put herself back in the action mode as if she hadn't just spent three months in isolation, leading a rather uneventful and in some ways probably a very nice and peaceful life. Yet she didn't appear lost or wistful. Just on the contrary, she seemed even more energetic. It was almost as if she'd missed magic and Jeremy just hoped that it was really the case, that she was enjoying it because it was, somehow, showing her way home and not because she thought she had to be strong for everyone's sake.

There was also the issue of Bonnie's lack of hesitation in regard to transferring the spell from Mystic Falls to New Orleans. Since it was Klaus' idea, Jeremy expected Bonnie to at least analyze it rather thoroughly before agreeing to it. Then again, moving the spell over to any other town probably carried a similar risk, because there was no way to tell which town was completely free of vampires, so perhaps Bonnie was just being sensible and didn't want to waste time. After all, they had to keep in mind that the Augustines knew where to look for them and Amanda and her father could very well decide to go after them without delay and so as soon as Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo were awake, they had to come up with a plan how to deal with that.

"Alright," Rebekah said, lowering her voice to a stage whisper. "So how do we do it? Who gets whom? They're all going to freak out when they wake up, so I think it'd be best to put everyone in a separate room with one person watching them and being there when they wake up." She stopped for a second and then added offhandedly. "I can stay with him," she said, indicating Enzo with a tilt of her head.

"I hope you speak Connacht Irish," Damon said with a weak, lop-sided smile.

Rebekah narrowed her eyes at him. "Speaking is such a cliché way to communicate."

Damon was about to reply, but Bonnie cut him off, briskly walking up to them.

"It's done. When is Matt coming to pick us up?" She asked with a small sigh, scanning their surroundings and thinking that she'd spent so little time exploring the outskirts of Mystic Falls in the past. She'd do it now. It was so peaceful here. The fields and the forests, so unlike anything else she could imagine – because they were so close to home.

Bonnie looked back at everyone and arched an eyebrow when she noticed that they were staring at her in silence. "What?"

"Well, that was... fast," Rebekah observed tentatively.

"Not that we're complaining," Alaric said reassuringly. "So... who is going to test if it worked?"

"It did work," Bonnie said in a low voice and Jeremy stifled a smile at the apologetic grimace on Alaric's face.

"I think our options are pretty limited," Damon said grimly, his eyebrows furrowed and Bonnie wanted to say something, but then decided to keep it to herself for now. "It has to be either you or Barbie Klaus."

Rebekah shot him an annoyed glare. "Can you stop calling me that?"

Damon shrugged. "Sure." He looked at Alaric again. "It has to be either you or Barbie Dracula."

xxxdelenaxxx

One car wouldn't have been enough, but luckily Matt came to pick them up driving an old-fashioned bus, courtesy of Hope.

"And what color is your Maserati?" Bonnie asked, exchanging a smile with Jeremy who kept her hand clasped tightly in his.

Matt shook his head, stifling a chuckle. "Believe it or not, I didn't do it on purpose. I don't have any babysitting experience. I didn't know what to do, so I just kind of talked a lot about everything and it took me a few hours to realize how this whole thing with conjuring up objects worked."

"So... you don't have a Maserati?" Jeremy asked in a matter-of-fact tone and Bonnie buried her face in his shoulder, her laughter coming out muffled.

Matt sighed. "I'm going to give it back."

"To whom?" Rebekah asked, resting her back against the window and placing her feet on the adjacent seat. "I don't think Hope's going to care about cars any time soon."

"You can give it to me," Jeremy offered.

"You should keep it."

Matt glanced at Rebekah over his shoulder and returned her smile. But then he shifted his eyes back to the road and cleared his throat. "Alright, I'll keep one."

Bonnie and Jeremy gave him amused, questioning looks and then laughed when he said, wincing:

"I might've spent an hour talking about different types of engines..."

Alaric smiled faintly, listening in to the exchange from where he was seating at the back of the bus in a row opposite from Damon, keeping an eye on the four unconscious vampires, the stretchers with Caroline, Stefan and Enzo strapped to the seats and only Elena's one being temporarily abandoned, because Damon was holding Elena in his arms, her head on his shoulder, his cheek resting on top of her head.

"Bonnie said the longer they're asleep the better, because she may figure out the way to bring their memories back before they wake up," Alaric said after watching Damon for a few seconds, the desolate look in his eyes especially visible when he wasn't saying anything and wasn't pretending not to be bothered by the turn of events.

Damon didn't avert his eyes from the window. "Uh-huh," he muttered non-committally, twirling Elena's hair around his fingers.

"You didn't even remember her and-"

"Ric," Damon cut him off, his voice firm, but quiet, tired. "I'm done with obligatory therapy sessions," he said, giving Alaric a fleeting smile.

"I just honestly have no idea why you look like you had an Armageddon scheduled for tomorrow."

"We're home," Jeremy called out.

Matt turned off the engine and when Damon looked out of the window he saw that they were parked in front of the boarding house.

xxxdelenaxxx

When the door closed behind Jeremy, Bonnie looked around the library and sat down on the carpet, scanning the grimoires that Jeremy had helped her place on the floor all around her.

Despite everyone insisting that she should rest, Bonnie was determined to figure out how to break the memory spell first. Because it was a spell, which was a good thing. Not that an ordinary amnesia couldn't be magically fixed, but an artificial one seemed easier to deal with from the get-go.

Bonnie chuckled under her breath at her own musings. "Self-confident much," she muttered to herself and reached out for her grandmother's grimoire. She placed it in her lap and tucked the chapter from Esther's grimoire in between the last page and the cover.

She didn't really have the time to think about what had happened. From the moment when she'd gotten her memories back, through the flight from New Mexico to Virginia, up till when they got settled in the boarding house, she was so preoccupied with the state Elena, Caroline, Stefan and even Enzo were in that she didn't devote a single thought to her recovered memories.

Bonnie's eyes drifted away from the book in her lap and absently followed the colorful patterns on the carpet. It felt both strange and not strange at all and she couldn't quite pinpoint the difference between her emotions from when she hadn't remembered her past and her emotions now. She hadn't remembered loving Jeremy when he'd shown up in New Mexico, but now she was sure she'd loved him all the same the moment she'd seen him in the hospital, even if she hadn't put that feeling into words back then.

She felt as if she came back from a long trip, but she felt refreshed, not awkward or scared. She also felt calm, so very, very calm. And she just wished she could hand some of this inner tranquility over to Damon, because he seemed grimly anxious about the situation and Bonnie knew that words alone couldn't possibly change that.

Turning a page in the grimoire Bonnie smiled again, shaking her head in amazement over the last three months. If it wasn't for the general, not very cheerful mood, it could've been rather amusing, recalling pillow fights, sneaking around the hospital, watching bad movies, drinking multi-vitamin "champagne" and making up bizarre dreams during group therapy sessions.

She wasn't quite sure what had changed exactly, if it was her perception of Damon or perhaps it was just that under different circumstance they both had a chance to look at each other differently. Either way, she didn't want to lost their friendship and hoped that he didn't either.

With a sigh, Bonnie turned another page and then frowned when instead of a tattered sheet filled with her grandmother's familiar handwriting her eyes fell onto one of the loose pages from Esther's spell book that a few moments ago Bonnie had put in one batch on the back of Sheila's grimoire.

But Bonnie's frown didn't last for long and soon it turned into a cautious smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

Alaric knocked on the door once and peered into Damon and Elena's room, meaning to ask if everything was OK-

"Where's Damon?" He asked, shifting his eyes from Elena who was lying on the bed, still asleep, to Jeremy who was sitting in an armchair by the window, his feet thrown over the side of the chair, his computer in his lap.

"Let's see," Jeremy said with a sigh, tilting his head to the side in mock consideration. "From the sounds of it, he's vacuumed this side of the house, washed the curtains, cleaned the windows, cleaned the carpets, so now he may be half-way through polishing the stairs."

Alaric snorted. "Right. Got it. Thanks. How are you?"

"Great," Jeremy said, glancing at Elena. "Playing chess with..." He narrowed his eyes at the screen, "vampsARReal905 and checking on Bonnie downstairs through Skype every ten minutes or so."

"Sounds good. I'm going to go find Damon."

"Yeah, give him your keys. You won't have to do any housekeeping for two months." Jeremy looked up, exchanging a laugh with Alaric before he closed the door behind him.

xxxdelenaxxx

Enzo wasn't sure if he woke up because of the headache or maybe it was the headache that woke him up... And he wasn't sure if that sentence even made any sense whatsoever.

Grimacing and groaning under his breath, Enzo pulled himself up to a sitting position, his entire body feeling incredibly heavy, his breathing labored. He felt as if every part of his body hurt.

But of course it did.

He rubbed his eyes and blinked them open, recalling falling off the cliff and hitting the rocks below, the sound of the sea roaring in his ears, the last sound... No, not the last. The last being the sound of the waves dwindling into an unpleasant, deafening, jingling noise growing louder and louder in his head-

And then it stopped and he couldn't remember anything beyond that.

"Hello there."

Enzo's head snapped up in the direction of the voice and his eyes widened in complete bewilderment at the sight of a girl plopped on a couch near the bed. She was beautiful, was wearing a shockingly short dress and was holding a weird, tiny bottle of colorful liquid in her hand, applying the color on her nails with her other hand.

Enzo stared at her and after a few moments of silence during which Rebekah was giving him mildly amused glances from under her eyelashes, he finally blinked and forced himself to look away from her and take a look at the room he was in.

He was definitely not at home, but where he was... he had no idea.

"You probably don't remember me," Rebekah said with an exaggerated sigh, putting the nail polish away and narrowing her eyes at Enzo. She gracefully rose to her feet and gave him a radiant smile. "I'm Rebekah."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Did Stefan wake up?" Damon asked when he saw Alaric approach him with a frown on his face.

"What are doing?" Alaric asked, ignoring the question and glancing at the bucket of water and a cloth in Damon's hand.

Damon blinked. "I'm cleaning the banisters." He turned away from Alaric and resumed his work. "No one was doing anything here for six months. You have no idea how dirty the windows were."

"Oh, come on," Alaric said impatiently, snatching the cloth out of Damon's hand and dropping it into the bucket. "What are you so worried about?" Damon said nothing and just continued looking the other way with a gloomy expression on his face, so Alaric continued, his tone stern, but his eyes full of concern and the faintest glimpses of cordial amusement. "Don't be ridiculous. That Miss Mystic Falls dance four years ago? There was already something going on between the two of you. What _is_ your problem right now?" Alaric shook his head, giving Damon an exasperated look.

"I can't lose her again," Damon whispered tonelessly, his eyes fixed on an unidentifiable point in space.

Alaric looked at him in silence for a second before he said in a voice devoid of both humor and feigned sternness. "When have you ever lost her?" Damon's eyes darted to him in genuine surprise and confusion and Alaric smiled faintly, but then resumed his former tone. "Go be there when she wakes up. I'm going back to Stefan," he added and turned around, heading back into the hallway.

Damon looked after him with wide eyes for a longer while before he moved-

And accidentally knocked out the bucket, causing the water to cascade down the stairs when an ear-piercing scream echoed across the house.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'm telling you! Elena tried to kill me!"

Caroline was standing in the middle of the parlor, waving her hands in all directions and shouting out of sheer frustration, because for whatever reason Matt didn't seem to care.

"Caroline, no, no, she didn't. Can you sit down? I need to explain to you what happened," Matt continued in a soothing voice, trying to calm Caroline down, but apparently to no avail.

"What's going on?" Damon asked, walking into the room and shifting his eyes between Caroline and Matt.

Caroline whirled around. "You?!" She exclaimed, her eyes widening in indignation. "What is he doing here?!" She asked, whirling back toward Matt and giving him an accusing glare. "What am I doing here?!" She shouted, looking around the room. "I don't remember leaving the hospital!"

"Caroline-" Matt started again.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Where is Klaus?" He asked with a grimace.

"Who is Klaus?" Caroline asked impatiently.

Matt gave Damon an annoyed look. "I can handle her."

"Well, it doesn't look like you can," Damon deadpanned with an artificial, sardonic smile.

"Handle me?! What is that supposed to mean?!" Caroline shouted, but then something caught her attention and she gasped, grabbing the rim of her blouse. "I don't remember buying this," she whispered, horrified. "This is not mine! And did you even hear what I said?!" She continued before Matt had a chance to cut in. "Elena tried to choke me to death with a pillow!"

"_Erratum_," Damon interrupted, squinting. "It was Katherine and she actually succeeded. Now carry on with the rest of the story," he said, waving his hand at Matt and making to leave, but as soon as he turned around he collided with Stefan whose eyes widened in surprise and relief at the sight of his brother.

"Who is Katherine?" Caroline asked with a grimace. "I don't know any Katherine. It was Elena! I know whom I saw!"

"Are you alright?" Stefan breathed out and threw his arms around Damon who widened his eyes at Alaric when he appeared right behind Stefan, extending his arms in a hopeless gesture. "Where are we?" Stefan asked, drawing back and looking around the room. "I can't remember-"

"Stefan! Mr. Saltzman!" Caroline exclaimed, leaping toward them and grabbing a handful of Stefan's shirt, hoping that maybe at least he'd pay attention to what she was saying. "Elena tried to kill me! "

Stefan looked at her, blinking rapidly at the strange impression that there was something familiar about the girl's eyes, about her voice that he couldn't quite place. Then he looked down at his shirt and realized that there was no blood on it...

"I'm sorry, Miss... I'm not feeling quite well today... Have we met before?" Stefan asked carefully, confused by an odd, unyielding feeling that he _should_ know who she was.

Caroline let go of him so violently, Stefan almost lost his balance and tripped to the floor.

"Seriously?!" Caroline shouted in aggravation. "If this is some kind of a prank that you're all playing on me, let me tell you that it is not funny!"

"What's going on in here?" Bonnie ran into the room and then grimaced, quickly getting at least a vague idea as to what was going on.

She looked at Damon who would've probably been more amused by the commotion if it wasn't for his apocalyptic mood that Jeremy had been making fun of all day.

"Bonnie!" Caroline cried out, wincing. "Elena tried to kill me! And I don't remember how I got here from the hospital, I most certainly didn't buy or put on any of these," she said, gesturing to the clothes she was wearing, "and I have no idea what I'm doing in this house!" She finished, shooting Damon a glare. "I'm going to call my mom," she added as an afterthought, glancing right and left.

"That's not a bad idea," Damon said with a brief smile that earned him another glare.

"I'm not talking to you!"

"I actually don't think that's a good idea," Bonnie said, wordlessly widening her eyes at Damon who simply shrugged. "I think we should just all calm down and stay here until I figure out what to do."

"What to do about what?" Caroline asked impatiently.

Bonnie sighed.

"You lost some of your memories," Matt said, hoping to at least get a few words of explanation in before the tension would escalate. "You forgot the last... three years.

"What?" Caroline whispered, blinking.

"Before you start thinking that's horrible, Stefan forgot the last 148 years, so cheer up," Damon cut in, before Caroline managed to say anything more.

"I... what?" Stefan asked, staring at Damon in utter bewilderment.

"I was trying to explain that," Alaric muttered with a strained smile.

Caroline shook her head with a humorless, slightly hysterical smile. "This can't be true."

"Good day. And I'm afraid this is true."

Everyone looked at Enzo when he walked into the room with such a calm and polite smile on his face that it contrasted greatly with the general, nervous atmosphere and actually was a little disconcerting.

"As strange as it sounds," Enzo added, giving Caroline a reassuring look when he noticed that the girl was about to panic. "I was also very surprised when I woke up," he continued in the most ridiculously compassionate tone and to everyone's surprise Caroline seemed to calm down a little. "But fortuitously, apparently something can be done about it. At least that's what my wife said."

Bonnie tilted her head to the side, her face scrunching up in confusion. She wished she could just go back to the library, because she was getting really close to finding a solution to their memory predicament, but if everyone started running amok it was not going to be possible any time soon.

Damon slowly raised his eyebrows. "Your wife?"

Enzo gave the man with the black hair a friendly smile. "Yes, she said she had to go check up on someone, but she'd be back in an hour and I'm sure she'll be able to explain it better then."

"I'm pretty sure I can explain it well enough," Bonnie cut in and then shifted her eyes to Caroline for a second and whispered in the most convincing tone she could muster. "I'll find a way to get your memories back. But right now I just need you to _not_ freak out, OK?"

Caroline grimaced, a small, frustrated moan escaping her. "So it's true? I forgot three years of my life?!"

"Excuse me, Rebekah told you she's your wife?" Matt asked with an incredulous smile that Enzo didn't read as menacing even if it was probably the most menacing smile Damon thought Matt Donovan was capable of.

Enzo looked at Matt, his forehead wrinkling in confusion, as if it just hadn't occurred to him before to doubt this fact. He seemed to ponder the question for a second before he cleared his throat and admitted cautiously with a baffled frown flitting across his face. "Not in so many words..."

"Well, luckily we have a historian with us," Damon spoke up when due to general consternation the room fell silent, "so why don't you take our time-travelers on a field trip," he said, glancing at Alaric who nodded quickly with a sigh, "complete with a few lectures on modern morality-"

Caroline yelped and Damon trailed off when Matt suddenly punched Enzo who was back on his feet surprisingly fast although his smile was gone.

"I demand satisfaction!"

Bonnie covered her mouth in order not to laugh, because as unfunny as the scene was, Enzo's tone and stance was hilarious, especially compared to the way she remembered him.

Matt, on the other hand, didn't look amused at all and was quite ready to hit Enzo again, but Alaric held him back.

"Yeah, well, sadly, duels are démodé these days," Damon said, grabbing Enzo before he managed to pounce at Matt.

"Regardless, we should probably try a reconciliation first," Alaric offered, giving Matt an expectant look, but Matt ignored him and just continued glaring at Enzo.

"What's going on in here? You're going to wake up the dead, pun intended," Jeremy said, running into the room and smiling at his own joke that unfortunately no one seemed in the mood for. He looked at Bonnie who gave him a small, exhausted smile.

Damon only fleetingly glanced at him, but then abruptly turned around to face him. "Did Elena wake up?" He asked a little breathlessly, his eyes widening.

Jeremy shook his head. "No, not yet. I just heard everyone shouting-"

Damon gave Jeremy a disbelieving, slightly irritated look before he wordlessly stormed out of the parlor.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Klaus said gleefully, strolling into the room and glancing indifferently after Damon as he ran past him and then rushed up the stairs without sparing him a glance. "It's nice to find everyone in good health." Klaus glanced around the room before focusing his attention on Caroline and Stefan. "However, it is awfully stuffy in here. You should open the windows. Let some fresh air in."

Caroline stared at Klaus unblinkingly, very much caught off guard by the appearance of another stranger, although she wasn't quite sure why it affected her so. Stefan shifted his confused gaze between everyone, still trying to understand what was going on. Was some of his memories also lost? That'd explain why he didn't recognize anyone here except for Damon.

"Yeah, as soon as all the corpses are out I'll do just that," Jeremy muttered, narrowing his eyes at Klaus who smirked in response.

"I'm going to take this cue," Klaus said with a twinkle in his eyes and turning around, he wrapped one of his arms around Caroline and the other one around Stefan, effectively startling them both. "What would say to a little trip? I have a helicopter waiting for us."

"A helicopter?" Stefan echoed uncertainly.

"Oh, come on, Stefan. You must've at least heard the word," Klaus said conversationally. "I believe it was coined in 1861."

A baffled smile began breaking onto Caroline's face, but then she quickly checked herself. "Who are you?"

"We'll have plenty of time to talk about that on our way to Paris."

Caroline's eyes widened almost to the point of no return. "Paris?" She whispered, instantly forgetting her previous question. "I've never been to Paris! I've never really been anywhere," she added with a small, nervous laugh and a flicker of a stunned, wistful, thoughtful look passed across Klaus' face, but he brushed it off and smiled again. "Have you been to Paris?" Caroline asked, leaning forward and peering at Stefan who looked completely befuddled.

"Alright, I really don't think that's a good idea," Alaric cut in with a mirthless grimace. "Bonnie's working on a spell that will restore their memories-"

"And I'm sure it will take her a considerable amount time," Klaus cut him off in a no-nonsense tone, "so I don't see why we can't take a trip in the meantime."

"I don't see why not either," Caroline consented enthusiastically and Alaric exchanged a worried and indecisive looks with Bonnie.

"Very well," Klaus said with a smile, beginning to walk toward the door, his embrace causing Stefan and Caroline to walk along with him as well.

"What's a helicopter?" Stefan asked in a low voice, blinking.

"I'll go with them," Alaric said when Klaus, Caroline and Stefan left the room.

Bonnie nodded. "That's a good idea," she said with a sigh. "And I think you should go check up on Meredith," she added, shifting her eyes to Matt. "Rebekah probably went to her to see Hope and if Klaus came here alone it probably means he'd dropped Hayley and Elijah there and-"

"And that's way too many unpredictable people per square mile," Jeremy finished for her and she smiled.

"Gladly," Matt said, making sure to glare at Enzo one last time before leaving the room.

"That went smoothly," Bonnie said when the only person left in the room besides her and Jeremy was Enzo who was standing in silence, apparently lost in thought.

"Yeah," Jeremy said with a smile. "Anyone wants an espresso?"

"What year is it?" Enzo suddenly asked, something not adding up in his thoughts, his good mood changing into a more anxious one.

"He wants a double espresso," Bonnie murmured, shifting her eyes from Enzo to Jeremy who smiled. "With bourbon."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena could feel the sun rays in her hair as soon as she woke up.

Or at least she _expected_ the sun rays and the thought seemed odd to her... but only a little.

Slowly, Elena opened her eyes, and as soon as she did, the memories of last night came rushing back to her.

The accident. The bridge. The water. Cold, so cold, so dark and yet... somehow, the panic couldn't quite make its way to her consciousness, because there was that abstract, warm sense of safety spreading from her chest, through her entire body, all the way to each of her fingertips.

Elena drew a breath, relieved, guessing that this was a sign that everything must've turned out OK, after all. They must've managed to get out of the car with Matt. Or perhaps someone had rescued them. Maybe even Rebekah had had some second thoughts and had decided to help them.

But then Elena remembered the bloodline issue and her breath caught in her throat. She frantically searched her mind, trying to remember something more from last night. Who had brought her home?

Home.

With a grimace, Elena tried to understand why the word seemed to evoke some contradictory images: one of dangerous flames and the other of cozily crackling fire.

Contemplating scooting off the bed she stirred... only to notice that she wasn't really able to move and that there was a... visible reason for that.

Her eyes fell onto Damon's face and she stared at him for a few seconds, forgetting to breathe without even realizing it.

Klaus was probably bluffing. Or they'd managed to find another way. Or Klaus had escaped. The last thought was unsettling, but right now she couldn't care less.

She sighed in relief, smiled and leaned toward Damon-

But something was _not_ right.

She was lying in bed... in the boarding house!... In Damon's room. In Damon's bed. With Damon by her side, asleep with one hand under his cheek and his other hand draped over her. Granted he was fully clothed and she was too. However, a brief scrutiny of their attires quickly led Elena to notice that she was wearing something that looked suspiciously like Damon's shirt. It _was_ his shirt. Elena frowned in confusion, her eyes flying from the shirt back to Damon's face. He looked so peaceful, so handsome, so... Her eyes flickered to his lips and she drew a shallow breath, hastily checking herself, completely stunned by a sudden, overwhelming, inexplicable _need_ to kiss him.

Gazing at Damon's lips, Elena tried to understand what was going on. What had happened last night? Had Damon rescued her and Matt? The last thing she remembered was Matt's truck hitting the water, the water filling the car... Stefan! She'd asked Stefan to get Matt out first and he'd had and then... and then there was so much pain and no air to breathe and then-

And then nothing. Elena wrinkled her forehead. Then everything had become quiet and dark and there was nothing to hold on to anymore except that thought, that thought she'd cut short.. that had gotten cut short by darkness: _If only..._

Elena stiffened and held her breath.

Suddenly, Damon shifted in his sleep and the next thing she knew, his face was buried in her hair, his lips on her cheek, his hand moving from her waist more than a little higher.

And to Elena's further puzzlement, all the disturbing, confusing memories seemed to disappear at an instant and she was left with no sensible thoughts in her. Instead, the only thought left was the realization that Damon's arm was protectively draped over her heaving chest.

Elena stared at the ceiling with wide eyes, afraid to blink, afraid to move in order to not wake him up... or to wake him up... or for yet another reason that she couldn't grasp while all she could think about at the moment was Damon's breath ghosting over her skin and his fingers absently caressing her skin. Yet, this wasn't the most terrifying part. What was much more disconcerting was that _she_ wanted to place her hand over his, run her hand through his hair, touch him, kiss him-

What. Was. Going. On. If he woke up right now, she'd have to make up some silly excuse about having a nightmare, because there was really no rational explanation for her body to react this way. She could hardly catch her breath and she was trembling.

Elena gritted her teeth, beginning to panic. Of course it wasn't like he hadn't made her feel this way before, but never before had she felt so little in control of what she was feeling, never before everything she felt was so _intense_.

Willing herself to stop drawing those ridiculous, shallow breaths, Elena tried once again to recall the events of last night. But no matter how hard she tried to think about it, the last image that she was able to retrieve was Matt being pulled out of the car and then the water making it impossible for her to breathe...

Slightly tilting her head backwards and to the side, Elena looked at Damon's face, so dangerously close to hers. She looked at his lips and thought it was impossible for her not to remember how she had gotten back home- back to the boarding house, she corrected herself glancing around. It was strange though, Elena thought with a frown, that the two expressions didn't really sound, didn't _feel_ different at all. The boarding house... Home...

Elena's train of thought was interrupted by a random, rather horrifying thought that she'd no idea where it had come from: it had suddenly occurred to her that since Damon was asleep, she could just kiss him and he wouldn't even know about it. So basically, if she kissed him fast enough, she could probably get away with it.

Screaming at herself in her head, Elena inched her lips closer to his just a little... just a little more... It made no sense, no sense at all, but this strange urge was stronger than her. And her heart started beating furiously in her chest when she realized that her lips were about to touch his, that she was a mere moment away from pressing her mouth to his... She could almost feel the texture of his lips under hers-

"Good morning, sunshine."

Elena's eyes snapped to Damon's and she felt completely embarrassed that he'd probably- probably!... that he'd _certainly_ deciphered her intention and was going to taunt her and comment on it. To be honest, she most likely deserved that, because how was she supposed to explain that she'd been trying to kiss him in his asleep? Her mind was blank and all excuses were gone anyway. She immediately started thinking about at the very least a good retort to his comment... but then she realized that he didn't make any comment at all... yet.

Instead, Damon moved his hand from her waist to her face and ran his fingertips down her cheek so lightly and so tenderly that Elena found herself at a loss of words, utterly befuddled... and unable not to lean into his touch. He seemed to notice that, but to her bewilderment, his eyes flashed with something akin to relief rather than smugness.

"How are you feeling?" Damon asked in a low voice that was both concerned, but also straight to the point in a curious, naturally confident way and Elena couldn't quite place the unexpected feeling his tone evoked.

"I'm fine," she whispered hesitantly, slowly pulling herself to a sitting position.

When she straightened up, her face, just barely, but nonetheless became out of reach for him.

Damon's hand dropped onto the bed and Elena couldn't help an abstract twinge of regret over that, but then Damon turned onto his back and clasped his hands behind his head like he'd had that night before the homecoming ball when he'd come to her room.

And he looked at her. With a faint, calm smile, he just looked at her.

"What is the last thing you remember, Elena?" He asked after a pause, tilting his head to the side a little and Elena was both relieved and terrified that her suspicions that something wasn't right were being kind of validated by his question.

There was also something unexpectedly strange, something unsettling, something... _addictive_ about the effortlessly ardent way in which he'd pronounced her name.

"The accident," Elena replied with a frown. "We fell off the bridge... Is Matt OK?" She asked, struck by the sudden thought that maybe Damon was so calm, because he was trying to calm her down before attempting to break some horrible news to her.

To her bafflement, Damon's reaction was a half-bitter, half-amused muffled snort of some sort.

"Damon, is Matt OK?" Elena demanded, beginning to feel really worried.

Her eyes darted to her own hand that was outstretched next to her on the bed and she was under a weird impression that her hand looked restless, as if she was reaching out for something, missing something...

"He's OK, but...you are a vampire, Elena," Damon said softly and Elena's eyes flew wide open.

She blinked. "What?"

Damon grimaced, scolding himself inwardly for just throwing this information right on her. Well, it wasn't like he'd been very diplomatic about it before, but under the circumstances he should've been more vigilant. Unfortunately, he suddenly understood that he wasn't going to be able to be as subtle and cautious toward Elena as she'd been toward him. He already felt like confessing everything to her in one breath. Maybe if he told her the truth right away, she'd believe it, throw herself into his arms and everything would be alright immediately?

Alright for him, he reminded himself. Damon drew a breath, feeling his heartbeat pulsate in his ears. He couldn't stand this. He couldn't stand this, but he had to. It was just that it didn't make sense. Not anymore. It made no sense that he couldn't just take her hand in his, tug her toward him, wrap his arms around her and explain everything in broken sentences between feverish kisses.

"Elena, you... drowned with vampire blood in your system. But before you start wallowing in despair over that please note that it happened almost three years ago," Damon said, planning on a hint of humor, but his voice came out completely hollow and the words didn't sound humorous at all, the memory of that night rushing back to him in all intensity and he suddenly had troubles taking his own advice.

Elena looked at him, her eyes wandering all over his face as if she was hoping to find something in his expression that would counter his words. Damon pushed himself to a sitting position, his hand subconsciously finding hers and closing around it.

"Three years?" Elena whispered with a small, disbelieving frown flitting across her face. "You mean I was... in a coma? For three years?"

"No." Damon shook his head with a weak smile and Elena's eyes flickered to his hand when he touched her cheek. "Just more supernatural complications ensued and... yesterday we had another witchy showdown and as a side effect your memory got wiped out, but apparently only a little."

"A little?" Elena widened her eyes at him. "You're telling me that I forgot three _years_ of my life and that I forgot that I'm a vampire!" She exclaimed and then drew a sharp intake of breath, because she felt like she _should_ be shocked and appalled by this, but somehow she couldn't find it in herself to feel that way. She didn't even feel surprised or upset.

Damon squeezed her hand in a reassuring gesture... and inwardly shuddered when he noticed that Elena's fingers were wrapped around his and that she was holding his hand as much as he was holding hers, although she didn't seem aware of that. She averted her eyes from him and looked around the room with unseeing eyes.

"Well, if that will make you feel any better, as of yesterday, you were kind of OK with that," Damon said with faint smile.

For a second he wasn't even sure if she'd heard him, because Elena's eyes continued scanning the room in a seemingly absent manner, but then she shifted her eyes back to him and asked in a low, simultaneously firm and faltering voice as if she wasn't sure how to ask the question.

"Why am I in your room?"

She didn't sound suspicious or upset and Damon couldn't help feeling just a tiny bit amazed that she even cared to worry about that at all right now, having just been told that she was a vampire.

"It's not my room," Damon replied, holding her gaze and Elena's forehead twitched in confusion, but then she felt hot shivers run up her spine when he added. "It's ours."


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N:** Thank you **so much** for all of your gorgeous reviews! :):):):):)

I was asked about the timeline, so here it is: S1 starts along with Elena's junior year in high school, S4 ends at the day of graduation, so that's two years already. I know S5 is probably half a year at best, but I decided to think about it as a full year to keep things simple lol Then this story is set six months after the end of S5, so that's another year, er, half a year. But hey, if Stefan can't keep his own age straight, I think I'm allowed to take some liberties with the timeline ;)

In other news... HAVE YOU SEEN THE TEASER TRAILER FOR S6? ? ? *goes back to sobbing*

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 20**

She wrote a story like this once when she was ten. It was about a girl who wanted to be a princess and one day the girl woke up – and discovered that she was a princess... only that she had no memory of how it happened.

Elena opened another drawer and looked into it without bending her head too much in order to avoid soaking the clothes with the water dripping off her wet hair.

It was an underwear drawer, but it wasn't just hers. Apparently, no drawer here was and she had no doubt it was deliberate, as there was enough space and it seemed only too easy to organize the drawers according to its owners rather than the contents. But instead, each drawer looked like it was being shared by the two of them and Elena's hand trembled just a little when she had to rummage through Damon's underwear to find her bras.

She closed the drawer and tiptoed to the bed, the floor cold, the carpet soft under her feet, both sensations strangely familiar, cozy in an evasive way that she couldn't grasp, even though her heart seemed to respond to them immediately. She dropped the towel onto the bed and with her eyes on the bed sheets that she was scrutinizing with abstract fear... or fascination that felt like one and the same confusing emotion anyway, Elena put on her lingerie before walking up to the closet, feeling ridiculously apprehensive to open it.

She always felt like there was something mysterious about this room, but now it was more than that, because now she was a part of this mystery. Now this room was also hers and as incredulous as this fact was, she didn't start questioning it or feeling uncomfortable because of if even for a split second and that was also rather confusing... or scary... or fascinating... She sighed and lightly shook her head, a few drops of water falling onto her bare feet.

Elena's hand lingered on the side of the wardrobe before she fully opened it, wondering just how many times she'd opened it in the past three years? In what mood? Slowly like right now? Quickly, because she was in a hurry? She glanced at the bed, finding it disturbingly easy to imagine Damon throwing her back onto it on some sunny morning despite her being late for school or work. She could almost hear her own laughter when he'd brush off her protests with sizzling, impatient kisses-

She gave a little jolt and shifted her attention back to the closet. One side of it was occupied by mostly black shirts and a few shirts of different colors while the other side consisted of her clothes, some of them looking familiar, but most of them looking new to her.

Reaching out, Elena inspected all the different dresses, so many dresses in so many colors: white, red, blue, pink, yellow. She hadn't been wearing so many colorful clothes even before her parents' accident.

Out of curiosity, she pulled out a short, red and white strapless dress just to see in the mirror how she'd look in it.

Holding the hanger near her shoulder, Elena tilted her head to the side, trying to imagine an occasion for which she'd wear such a dress. A trip? A picnic? A party? She bit her lip and put the dress back into the closet. _Our closet. _Shedrew a shaky breath. She was afraid that Damon might've misunderstood her reaction to all of these revelations. She was so completely stunned and overwhelmed that she'd hardly been able to form a coherent sentence and perhaps that was why he'd abruptly suggested that she must've been tired, needed to rest, take a bath and then he'd left the room before she'd managed to stop him.

There was something acutely terrifying about him leaving the room that didn't make much sense. It wasn't like he wouldn't come back. Elena frowned. It was all so confusing. There were so many things and people she should be thinking about right now and yet she couldn't make herself think about anything else but Damon and a thousand days they'd spent together.

Elena grabbed another dress and held it thoughtfully in her hands. Technically, she didn't know how many days out of about one thousand that she didn't remember they'd been together. It could've just been three hundred. Or one hundred. Or fifty.

She wasn't sure why she preferred imagining the days rather than weeks or months. Maybe because imagining the days made the time seem longer... She looked at herself in the mirror. Whatever it was that she'd forgotten, she missed it, every moment. Those moments felt like tiny holes in her head, each filled with pain. It was probably how it all felt to him too. Or perhaps to him it felt even worse, Elena thought, gritting her teeth. Because to her it felt like she'd lost some of her memories. To him it seemed to feel like he'd lost her.

She tried on a blue dress and a green one. The colors alone were making her look happier and Elena found it surprising that she could even focus on thinking about clothes while she should probably start thinking about the fact that she was a vampire instead. But for some reason she just couldn't make herself worry about that. Maybe because three years had passed and even if she didn't remember it now, her mind had already processed her transition and somewhat bizarrely, she just wasn't able to think about it as something new and shocking.

Elena shook herself out of her reverie and noticed that she was looking at the row of black shirts in the wardrobe. She stepped away from the mirror.

So many strange things had happened to her in the past, but there was something incomparably strange about falling into the icy-cold, murky river one day and waking up in a dream-like world in the next one.

She grasped the lapels of one of the shirts to feel the fabric under her fingertips.

Tears, uncertainty, pain, despair, dismay, heart-wrenching decisions, choices she hadn't been ready to make – they were all gone now. Irrelevant. Because all of her problems had magically solved themselves while she was sleeping.

That was how it all really felt to her, Elena thought with a faint, broken smile. That was the most persistent thought that was echoing in her head while Damon had been trying to summarize the last three years to her. She suspected that he'd been focusing on what was of little interest to her out of sheer nervousness. Of course one day she'd like to hear about everything in greater detail, but right now she couldn't care less about suspicious professors, evil warlocks, crazy witches and anti-vampire societies and he knew her too well not to know that.

Having picked a white, sleeveless crochet dress, Elena swiftly put it on and headed to the bathroom to dry her hair.

But half-way across the room, a knock on the door stopped her and she turned around, bracing herself, not really able to smile even though she felt as if the entire room suddenly brightened around her.

"I just wanted to-" Damon started, taking a hesitant step inside, but then stopping abruptly in his tracks and staring at Elena, apparently struck by something in her appearance.

"What is it?" Elena asked, intrigued, looking herself up and down, guessing that it must've been her choice of the dress that had startled him so.

"_I'm not sorry that I'm in love with you."_

Damon shook his head. "I just..." He looked away with a grimace, his eyebrows furrowed. "I thought that we could go out, maybe... go on a short road trip... somewhere. But if you don't want to go..."

He looked back at her, his voice uneven and uncertain, but at the same time determined and vaguely upset and Elena wasn't sure how to respond to that. He seemed so worried about her reaction to everything he was saying, that instead of actually waiting for her to react, he was assuming what her reaction was going to be like and then he was behaving as if she really reacted that way.

"I didn't say that," Elena said with a brief smile, nervously curling up and outstretching her fingers.

"Right," Damon said quietly, his lips twitching into a fleeting smile that mirrored hers. "So... do you...want to-"

"Yes," Elena breathed out, cutting him off in mid-sentence.

They looked at each other in silence for a few seconds.

"I have to dry my hair," Elena said at last, hoping that at least he could hear her voice, because her heartbeat was reverberating in her ears so loudly that she herself couldn't.

Damon nodded. "I'll wait downstairs-"

"Could you..." Elena interrupted him again and was sure that there was something ridiculous about her rushed tone of voice, but she couldn't help speaking with inexplicable impatience, driven by this recurring, irrational fear of him leaving the room again. "Could you help me with the hairdryer? I don't know where to plug it," she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

But despite the excuse being lame, or perhaps because of the excuse being lame, Damon's eyes widened and the underlying grim expression seemed to fade off his face a little.

"Sure," he said, blinking and beginning to walk up to her.

Elena turned on her heels, trying to calm down. Watching him walk toward her was having a simultaneously thrilling and terrifying effect on her and she didn't know what to do about it, other than almost run to the bathroom.

Which obviously wasn't going to help much, because he appeared right next to her soon after.

Elena grabbed a brush, just to do something with her hands and watched Damon plug the hairdryer in the most conspicuous electrical outlet ever.

"Thank you," she whispered and Damon smiled faintly and then repeated that he'd wait downstairs.

He was walking away slowly, she'd give him that. Nonetheless, Elena found it frustrating enough to throw the brush on the vanity and storm out of the bathroom after him.

"Why are you being like this?"

Damon turned around. "What do you mean?" He asked softly, squinting.

"Like you were upset with me," Elena said, her heart clenching at the resigned tone of his voice, that inexplicable fear of losing him out of sight even for a second hitting her with full force and she could _almost_ grasp the meaning of it.

Because there was something to it, something she couldn't understand, couldn't remember, something that tasted bitter and cold, something more than sadness or anger. Something like... grief.

A weak, sad smile flitted across Damon's face. "I'm not upset with you, Elena."

Elena winced and after a moment of hesitation Damon frowned.

"I just don't know what to do," he admitted and Elena felt relieved that they were at least back to what felt like home in itself: to always telling each other the truth. "I can't behave like nothing's happened. I can't go back to that time you remember." He paused and then added in a strained, self-berating voice, holding her gaze. "I don't want to."

Elena took a step toward him. "I'm not asking you to." Paradoxically, this seemed to rekindle the grim look in Damon's eyes. "I'm not," Elena repeated firmly. "I don't remember the last three years, so I'm behaving the only way I know how. But you do remember, so behave like it. I'm not asking you not to," she said with an abstract hint of challenging aggravation in her tone, fueled by a mixture of hope and skepticism in his eyes.

She wanted to scream at him, if that was going to help, because there was something incredibly frustrating-

Her train of thought was cut short when Damon suddenly leaped toward her and she just managed to register his hands sliding into her hair before his mouth crashed against hers.

For a few moments neither of them moved and the kiss felt more like a breath they both had to take to survive.

His lips felt hot and feverish against hers like when she'd kissed him after the werewolf bite... The kiss was sweet and gentle like when they'd kissed for the first time... And then it grew passionate and reckless like in Denver...

But there was also something else, something more, and Elena's hands flew to his shoulders to pull him closer and don't let him go, never let him go.

Damon broke the kiss, but his lips were still hovering over hers and Elena slowly opened her eyes and looked into his without blinking, shivering in exhilaration she understood quite well and yet not at all, because it didn't feel like anything she'd experienced before.

"What was that for?" She panted and Damon's hand froze on her cheek, but only for a second.

"You said we didn't have to pretend like the last three years hadn't happened," Damon said in a low voice, cupping the side of her face in his palm and brushing his thumb across her lower lip.

"I said you didn't have to pretend," Elena replied, her heart fluttering as if she'd just found a long-lost trail that led back home.

Damon raised his eyebrows. "And how is that supposed to work? I can kiss you, but you won't kiss me back?" He risked a small smirk, his forehead falling against hers. Perhaps it was too early to hope that everything would fall into place without any troubles, but it was so tempting to dream with Elena safe in his arms. "You kind of already did."

"You caught me off guard."

Damon drew back just a little, his heart skipping a beat when he noticed a glimpse of humor in Elena's eyes. She was leaning toward him, not at all trying to keep any distance between them.

"Does it mean I can't kiss you again?"

Elena's eyes flickered between his eyes and his lips and it looked like she was trying to formulate an answer, but to no avail.

Pressing his cheek to hers Damon whispered. "Does it mean I can?"

He closed his eyes, waiting for her to answer, but she didn't say anything. He turned his head, watching her eyes flutter shut, her ragged breathing ghosting across his skin when he started trailing unhurried, soft kisses all over her face.

"What if it's just been a day and I'm making it all up?" Damon murmured, his eyes glimmering with wonder when Elena opened her eyes and brought her hand to his face.

"You wouldn't," she whispered. "I trust you."

He smiled faintly and she smiled back, but her smile faltered when she noticed that the expression in his eyes became predominantly sad again.

"So you remember trusting me," he said somberly as if he'd come to some kind of an obvious, disappointing conclusion and then apparently remembering about something, he grabbed Elena's hand and led her to the bathroom and the movement, the gesture reminded her of something... or at least she thought it would've reminded her of something if she'd only remembered...

"Damon..." Elena started tentatively, watching him in the mirror when he stepped behind her, turned on the hairdryer and began drying her hair in the most casual manner.

She decided that it made no sense to speak, since he couldn't hear her anyway, so she just continued gazing at him in the mirror. He seemed focused on the task, his fingers sifting through her hair and it wasn't until his eyes met hers in the mirror that Elena's breath caught in her throat and it prompted her to whirl around.

"Damon, tell me what happened," she said with a determined grimace, snatching the hairdryer out of his hand. She turned it off and put it away. "Tell me everything. Not about curses, spells and magical tombstones." She inhaled and added under her breath. "Tell me... about us."

He looked at her as if he was trying to decide if all he wanted was to do just that or rather dismiss her request altogether.

"Elena... I don't know where to start," he said at last with a brief, sour smile.

"Start at the beginning or at the end, it doesn't matter. Start anywhere." Elena looked around, as if searching for ideas and then pointed to her dress. "Start with this dress," she said with a small, encouraging smile. "What's the story here?"

She looked at him without blinking, silently urging him to speak, but after a moment of deliberation he seemed to have decided against it.

"I'll let you figure this one out," he said at last with a faint, crooked smile, briefly widening his eyes at her before walking out of the room and Elena made an effort to look after him with an irritated frown instead of an amused, hopeful smile that appeared on her face a moment later.

Because they were going to be fine.

She walked up to the window and pushed all the curtains to one side, letting all the sunlight in.

Because they always survived. She could never forget about that.

xxxdelenaxxx

Bonnie gave Jeremy a questioning look when he came back into the library shaking his head and rolling his eyes in exaggerated exasperation.

"I don't know what would have to happen for them _not_ to start making out within five minutes of seeing each other," Jeremy said, slumping onto the floor next to Enzo who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, apparently lost in one of the grimoires.

Bonnie grinned. "That's good. We don't need more problems," she said with a sigh, glancing around.

"So what are we looking for now?" Jeremy asked, following her gaze.

"We're looking for this symbol," Bonnie said, lifting one of the grimoires for Jeremy to see.

"Not this one?" Jeremy asked, taking advantage of Enzo's eyes being glued to the book.

He gave Bonnie a conspiratorial smile and made a heart shape with his hands. Bonnie laughed.

"It has to be in red," Enzo muttered, turning a page. "We've already checked all of these," he said, tapping a couple of grimoires on his left hand side.

Bonnie shrugged when Jeremy wordlessly communicated to her what incredulous an idea involving Enzo as a researcher here was.

"Did you call Alaric?" Bonnie asked, propping her head on her elbow.

Jeremy nodded. "He said that after Paris they're going to Rome."

Bonnie widened her eyes at him. Jeremy extended his hands in a hopeless gesture, but before Bonnie had the time to point out that she might need Caroline and Stefan back soon and traveling around the globe was not the best idea right now, their attention was drawn to the hallway when they noticed Damon heading toward the door with a rather grim expression on his face.

"Alright, let's take a coffee break," Bonnie said after a moment of consideration, rising to her feet. "I'm gonna go talk to Elena for a second."

"Could I have that cherry juice that I had before?" Enzo asked in such a polite tone that Jeremy found it very hard not to make some sarcastic remark concerning it.

"Sure," Bonnie said, biting her lip. "Jeremy will get you some and maybe... he could also take this opportunity to explain to you why this... cherry juice is so good," she proposed cautiously, giving Jeremy a strained smile.

"Why me?" Jeremy asked with a grimace.

"Because Damon's not in the mood and no one else is around."

Jeremy laughed. "Right. Thanks. Now I feel irreplaceable."

Bonnie leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips on her way out of the room.

"Don't forget to tell her that he almost got me killed again and that he dumped her. Twice!" Jeremy called after Bonnie, glancing over his shoulder and stifling a smile when he heard her laugh under her breath while she was making her way up the stairs.

"I think I know what's wrong with this cherry juice," Enzo said with a knowing nod. Jeremy shifted his eyes to him. "It contains alcohol, right?"

Jeremy stared at him, but then quickly cleared his throat and did his best to keep a straight face. "Well, I guess in some cases it definitely may..."

xxxdelenaxxx

On the one hand, everything was going better than he'd expected, but on the other hand... it wasn't going well enough.

Damon snorted inwardly at his own thoughts, thinking that maybe he was being thoughtlessly ungrateful. He was obviously relieved that Elena didn't seem appalled or incredulous, merely a little stunned and overwhelmed by everything. It was more than he'd expected. And yet, perhaps even because of that, he automatically, greedily, immediately wanted more and that of course wasn't fair to her, because for her, for now the time had stopped that night at the Wickery Bridge.

Or perhaps the time stopped altogether, Damon thought in bewilderment, stopping dead in his tracks when after walking out of the house he was confronted with the most astonishing sight that for a second made him think that Elena, Stefan, Enzo and Caroline hadn't just lost memories, but rather that they _all_ had gone back in time.

Damon looked at his camaro, looking perfectly un-burnt, shiny and new, parked in front of the boarding house like it was any other day-

But then to make this strange occurrence even weirder, the door on the driver's side opened and Matt jumped out of the car, adding more than a hint of irritation to Damon's bafflement.

Matt froze for a second when he noticed Damon. He made a face as if he was stifling an urge to roll his eyes and then closed the door and walked around the car.

"Nice car," Damon said, squinting. "Another gift from Miss Mini Klaus?"

Matt smiled briefly. "Actually... no. It's pretty much hand-made," he said, giving the roof a little pat. "It's taken almost six months to build... or rather rebuild," he corrected himself and Damon's forehead wrinkled in confusion in vague anticipation of Matt's explanation that followed. "It's a bit of a replica. I recovered from the Grill what I could, but there was not much that could be recovered." Matt glanced at the car again. "And OK, I admit, there was a couple of parts that I couldn't find or buy anywhere, so Hope did help a little with that," he added with a small chuckle, but then resumed a guarded expression, mildly amused by the baffled look on Damon's face. "I didn't really think I'd ever see you again, no offense, so it was supposed to be a present for Elena, but I don't think she's going to mind," he added a little pensively turning the car keys in his palm before handing them to Damon who blinked a few times before taking the keys from Matt after he prompted him to do so.

"Thank you," Damon muttered with a frown, not sure what to make of it. He looked at keys in his hand and the glanced up at Matt when he spoke again.

"I don't know if it would've actually made things better or worse," Matt said after a pause. "But I just couldn't think of anything better to do." He looked at Damon as if to see if he knew what he was talking about and continued when he saw a flash of anxious, worried curiosity in Damon's eyes. "They were going crazy. Elena and Jeremy. We honestly thought they were losing their minds. They were going mad with grief... with hope, I don't know which one it was more, probably both. They weren't going to move on, that's for sure, so I thought..." Matt trailed off, glancing at the car again in search of the right words, but somehow he wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to say or why.

"Matt!" Elena called out, appearing in the door and quickly walking down the stairs, not looking at Damon, but noticing out of the corner of her eye that the fact that she was wearing his jacket wasn't lost on him. Despite the amnesia, she at least seemed to be doing a good job picking her clothes, Elena thought smiling to herself a little. "Are you OK?"

Matt smiled. "Well, like everyone else I died a couple of times in the meantime, but yes, I've been mostly OK in the last three years."

Elena nodded, biting back a chuckle and stopping near the car, but still making a point of not looking at Damon.

"Are Bonnie and Jeremy home?" Matt asked, gesturing to the house and only then Damon realized that it wasn't the first time someone was casually referring to the boarding house as 'home' and it was a strange feeling, because it suddenly made him feel, for the first time in a long time, that he had a home.

"Yes, they're putting together a spell to restore our memories," Elena replied with a small sigh. "Bonnie said it's actually very likely it will be possible to do."

Damon listened in silence to the exchange that lasted for another couple of minutes until Matt finally went into the house and Elena slowly turned around to face Damon.

"You're upset with me," Damon said with a weak, humorless smile.

Elena shook her head with an incredulous huff. "Bonnie just told me that we spent the last six months apart, that you... died?" She whispered the word, hardly able to pronounce it, "that you're human! Why didn't you start by telling me about all that?"

"I didn't and still don't think that's most important at the moment," Damon replied in a disgruntled tone.

Elena widened her eyes at him. "And what in your opinion is most important at the moment?"

"You forgot everything since your transition, Elena," Damon said as if that was supposed to explain everything, but Elena was still looking at him with demanding disbelief, so he continued. "The most important thing is for you to learn how to be a vampire, how to feed, how to survive-"

"If that's the purpose of this trip I'm not going anywhere," Elena interrupted him, crossing her arms over her chest.

Damon's mouth twitched into a resigned, bitter grimace. "I know you don't want to be a vampire-"

"That's not what I meant," Elena cut in, her voice becoming sharper and more irritated with every sentence and he could tell that she was losing patience, although he wasn't entirely sure why.

"You don't want me to be teaching you-" Damon started again, but stopped in mid-sentence when Elena snorted mirthlessly.

"Where all of these theories come from? I didn't say anything like that!" she said with a frown, but then her breath caught in her throat at the expression on Damon's face. "Did I?"

"Elena-"

On an impulse, she stormed toward him and Damon fell silent when she placed her hands on either side of his face.

"I don't know what to do either," she said earnestly, echoing his earlier words. "All I know is that I want to be near you."

Damon smiled, his embrace tightening around her, but before Elena had a chance to return his smile he grimaced. "But you don't know why," he said wistfully, running his fingers through her hair.

Elena looked at him and felt shivers run up her spine at the sudden realization that she didn't even have to search for a good retort right now, because the question rolled off her tongue almost out of its own accord:

"What makes you think I don't remember falling in love with you?"

Damon stilled his movements and just stared at her.

But then they both shuddered when Jeremy's voice shook them out of the moment:

"Bad news or good news first?"

"Bonnie found the spell?" Elena hazarded an immediate guess and Jeremy smiled.

"That's the good news," he confirmed. "And there's even more to it, so it's double good news, actually. But the bad news is that in order for Bonnie to do this spell Caroline and Stefan also have to be here."

Damon gave Jeremy a questioning look, as if he didn't understand what the problem was. He reached for his phone.

"Don't bother," Jeremy said with a small smile. "I just called Ric. Klaus said that he's not going to change their itinerary, quote, ' for no reason' and that they still need to go to Tokyo at least for one day before they can come back."

"What?" Damon asked with a disbelieving grimace.

Jeremy shrugged. "Let's just hope they'll be back sooner than Enzo projected. When he heard they're in Asia, he said it'd take them a few months to come back."

"Very funny," Damon muttered, not sharing Jeremy's amusement and preparing to make a call anyway, but Elena snatched the phone out of his hand. He blinked.

"Are they alright?" Elena asked, looking at Jeremy and moving her hand away whenever Damon was trying to get his phone back.

"From what Ric said, they're more than alright."

Damon looked between Elena and Jeremy with a grimace, not sure what they were even discussing that. "Who cares? They have to come back as soon as possible."

"Why?" Elena asked, wrinkling her forehead in feigned confusion. "If they're having such a good time, we can wait a few days."

"No, we can't," Damon protested.

"Why not?"

"We could go to the lake house for a couple of days," Jeremy offered and Elena seemed to ponder this for a second.

"Not my favorite place on the planet," Damon muttered grimly, but they both seemed to ignore him.

"Do you and Bonnie want to go?" Elena said after a moment of consideration.

Jeremy sighed. "With Enzo, right?"

"Who is Enzo?" Elena asked, glancing between Jeremy and Damon who was about to answer, but Jeremy cut him off.

"Don't worry about it, Elena." Jeremy waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "We can take him to the lake house with us, it's fine. In his current state he's pretty easy to handle. Either way, it's probably a good idea to be out of town in case the Augustines decided to pay us a visit before Bonnie can perform the spell."

"Isn't the spell going to be about our memories?" Elena asked a little puzzled.

Jeremy gave her a purposefully mysterious smile. "Bonnie said it's going to be a surprise," he said with a wink.

"It's a surprise after surprise today," Damon mumbled, glancing at the camaro.

"So you don't want to go to the lake house?" Jeremy asked, looking at Elena who shook her head.

"No." She paused, stifling a determined smile and glancing at Damon whose head snapped into her direction when she added. "Damon and I are going to Georgia."


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:** Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for all of your amazing reviews! *hugs*

Another ridiculously long chapter, but in my defense, there's only one more chapter left after this one and I have to put all of these scenes somewhere, right? ;)

And a little announcement: it may take me two or even three weeks to post the last chapter, because there are so many scenes I'd like to include in it! And I just have no idea how I'm going to find the time to write them all lol

**Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

**Chapter 21**

"Did you know that the word _sushi_ doesn't include any reference to fish at all?" Alaric said in a completely lighthearted, conversational manner, holding the phone with his shoulder while reaching for the chopsticks. "It just refers to rice seasoned with salt, sugar and vinegar."

Damon blinked, glancing around the sunlit gas station with growing irritation. "Did you hear what I just said?"

"Well," Alaric squinted and took a leisurely sip of his green tea. "You kind of keep repeating the same sentence over and over and over again, so it'd be difficult to have missed it."

Damon grimaced, pushing two more quarters into the coin slot. "Is it just me or was everyone being much nicer when I had the amnesia?"

"It is just you. Everyone was being the same," Alaric said, looking over a piece of sushi before dipping it in the soy sauce. "You, however, were being decidedly less paranoid."

"I'm not paranoid."

"You want us to come back home immediately, even though we haven't even seen the Himeji Castle yet."

"You're not funny, Ric."

"All I'm saying is that there's no emergency-"

"Yes, there is an emergency," Damon interrupted him. "My girlfriend doesn't remember that she's my girlfriend!"

Alaric sighed, making an effort to keep amusement out of his voice. "That's not an emergency. That's a minor inconvenience at best, especially considering that she's on a road trip with you right now, isn't she? Besides, wasn't she your girlfriend before she knew she was your girlfriend? Or something like that. In any case, I'd say the ratio of reality versus inevitability remains the same, so-"

"How does that make it a minor inconvenience? It makes it a major inconvenience," Damon said with a disbelieving frown. "And I don't have a clue what you even mean by that second part."

"Either way," Alaric continued, not quite succeeding at keeping his voice serious, "we'd barely seen anything in Paris and Rome. We flew to Tokyo sooner than it was originally planned. I don't really have any means to convince Klaus to speed up his sightseeing designs even more."

"And you sound awfully torn up about it," Damon muttered. "Aren't you a super-vampire or something?"

"And he's an original hybrid who can't be killed- What's that sound?"

"I'm running out of quarters," Damon grunted, squinting. "I'm calling from a pay phone. Elena confiscated my cell."

Alaric chuckled. "Well, looks like she's got your mood figured. I have to go anyway. We're going to see a play tonight. Did you know-"

"Save ten fun facts about Japanese culture for your students. I have to go too," Damon said grumpily before hanging up.

He stepped away from the phone just in time to see Elena walk out of the store, someone holding the door open for her, saying something to her while she smiled and even laughed a little.

With a frown, Damon made his way toward her, the stranger and Elena apparently wishing each other a good day and parting ways before Damon got close enough to hear anything of the conversation.

"What was that all about?" He asked, walking up to her and shooting the stranger a glare over his shoulder.

Elena widened her eyes at him as if she had no idea what he was talking about, but then understanding seemed to dawn on her and she pulled out a small writing pad and a pen that she'd apparently just bought at the gas station.

Tilting his head to the side, Damon watched her write for a few moments, before moving to stand next to her and taking a look at the words she'd written in bullet points.

"What are doing?" He asked, confused.

"I'm making notes," Elena said, snapping the pen close and giving Damon a vaguely challenging look. "You're not telling me anything, so I'm taking notes to learn something about our life together," she added, walking past him and heading toward the car.

Damon looked after her in bafflement for a couple of seconds before quickly following her.

"What do toothbrushes have to do with anything?" He asked with a grimace, looking at Elena over the roof of the camaro.

"The ones we have are too hard. Softer toothbrushes are actually healthier," Elena replied matter-of-factly, getting into the car.

Blinking, Damon jumped into the driver's seat. "Car insurance?"

"It's expired, I checked," Elena said and Damon glanced right and left, wondering how and when she'd even managed to do that. "So we need to renew it as soon as possible." She reached for the seatbelt, completely ignoring the still puzzled look on Damon's face.

"I don't have jealousy issues," he said, remembering the last point on the list.

Elena snorted humorlessly. "You so do."

"I so don't," Damon protested.

"Fine," Elena said with a sigh, turning to her notepad again and crossing out the 'jealousy issues' line.

Damon was about to turn on the engine, but then he noticed that Elena added another point to her list.

"I'm not despotic."

Elena crossed out 'despotic' and wrote 'petulant' instead. Damon snatched the writing pad and the pen out of her hands. She narrowed her eyes at him and for a moment he seemed to ponder throwing the writing pad out of the window altogether, but then he apparently changed his mind and wrote something on the next page. He tore out the page and handed it to Elena, his eyes locking with hers for a moment before he turned on the engine and headed out of the gas station.

Elena looked down at the note in her hands and bit her lip, her expression softening, an inner smile brightening her eyes.

"I'm just trying to learn something about us," she said quietly, tracing the three words the note consisted of with her fingertips, which didn't escape Damon's attention. He glanced up, trying to read from her face if she was doing it absently or because she really wanted to. "You haven't said a word since we left Mystic Falls an hour ago."

"What can I say that you don't already know?" Damon asked grimly, averting his eyes from her when she looked at him.

"Damon, I don't know _anything_ that happened in the last three years!" Elena said, giving him an incredulous look and watching him for a few seconds, his eyes fixed on the road. "Why do you think I want to know everything that happened between us?" She asked after a pause. He didn't answer. "Do you think I'm after some kind of evidence to talk my way out of our relationship?" She grimaced, glancing at his hands that tensed over the steering wheel. "I'm not," she said, reaching out and covering one of his hands with hers. His eyes darted to her face. "I just want to know more about our time together. Is it so hard to understand?"

Damon looked back at the road and then abruptly turned right and stopped the car on the side of the road where it seemed to merge with a path leading into the forest.

"Yes, Elena, it is," he said with some difficulty, looking straight ahead. Elena frowned. "Because for all you know, because the last thing you know, the last thing you must remember is that you didn't want to be with me. So yes I do think that the main reason why you want to know about our time together is to figure out how you could've possibly ended up in such a nightmarish situation," he concluded in a rushed, strained voice, almost running out of breath as if it'd taken an enormous effort to say all these words out loud.

It wasn't entirely true, he knew... or at least he hoped it wasn't, but he just couldn't stop himself from sharing with her the most severe version of his thoughts.

He couldn't just wait it out, as simple as it would be. They could easily spend a day or two or three avoiding uncomfortable discussions and then Elena would get her memories back and everything would be alright again. But somehow he couldn't do that. He felt like it wouldn't be fair to either of them.

Without looking at Elena, Damon got out of the car and inhaled the cool air, surveying the pale blue sky with his eyes narrowed. It wasn't as dark and the trees didn't look as gloomy, but they reminded him of that evening on the island. And now he was probably doing just what Elena had told him back then that he was always doing. Sabotaging things. But no matter how much he tried to let go of all those nagging, troubling thoughts and just focus on her being here, the fear that she might not really want to be here was stronger.

A moment later he heard the passenger door open and he felt a twinge of fear indistinguishable from relief at the sound of Elena's footsteps quiet against the grass. Even without heightened senses he could _feel _with every fibre of his body her every step that was bringing her closer to him.

"You have it all wrong." Walking to stand in front of him, Elena looked at Damon with tenderness that he would've found heartwarming if he wasn't worried that it was driven by some kind of compassion.

At the same time, he was involuntarily drawing some semblance of reassurance from the fact that she was standing right in front of him, still here, still near, so close he could reach out with his hand and touch hers- Only that she might not really want it.

He smiled dejectedly. "No, Elena, I think I have it quite right."

"No, Damon, you don't," Elena said impatiently, beginning to sound really upset.

He looked away from her. "I don't think this conversation, this trip is being very productive," he whispered in a tone that was both sour and resigned. "Maybe we should just go back-"

"Why are you doing this?" Elena interrupted him, taking a step back and widening her eyes at him.

He seemed to notice her taking the step back of all things and she wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry at how ridiculous he was being. She was torn between taking a step toward him again and taking three more steps back, but the latter would just mirror his childish behavior.

Damon sighed. "I told you-"

"Yes, I know you told me you didn't know what to do and I told you I didn't know either, but I thought that'd be a breakthrough. Instead, we just continue acting silly. Can't you just forget that I lost my memories and behave as if I didn't? I'm still the same person and if things have changed between us it means that things have changed between us and I'm OK with that."

"How? Why? Why are you OK with that?" Damon asked and Elena exhaled, glad that his attitude was at least becoming more confrontational than defensive, but at the same time she wasn't sure she'd be able to explain her feelings well enough to take advantage of that. But before she had a chance to even try, he dismissed all of her untold explanations in advance. "That's very gracious of you, but... I don't need your kindness," he pronounced the word with a grimace of disdain. "You don't have to resign yourself to your fate, Elena. There is no fate," he said with a half-triumphant, half-rueful smile that she couldn't unambiguously interpret. "You're free," he said bitterly with the same expression, blinking rapidly before turning away from her.

"If I'm free then why can't I make my own choices?"

"You can," he said tonelessly and she grasped his arm to turn him around.

He didn't resist, but when she looked at him, his expression was guarded.

"I keep telling you that I want to be with you and you keep pushing me away." Elena's eyes wandered around Damon's face and she marveled inwardly at the impression that she _knew_ every line on his face, that she could probably faithfully paint it with her eyes closed.

"No, Elena. You keep telling me that you want to understand why we are together. So here it is. We aren't. You can start over. Choose anew. Do what you want. Do what you really want."

Elena grimaced in exasperation, but the dark light in his eyes was making it impossible for her to even get truly mad at him, because it was apparent that his own words were causing him far more pain than they were causing her. She found them merely infuriating.

"No, Damon, I can't!" She grasped his forearm a little harder. "You're making it impossible for me to do what I want, because you keep telling me that I can't possibly want what I want," she said a little breathlessly and he wasn't sure if she was making a deliberate callback or if it just came out this way. "What proof do you need to believe that I want to be with you?

She wondered if it was a certain level of abstraction that was making the words so exhilarating to say or perhaps it was just the way his eyes darted to her. Either way, she was momentarily stunned by the sudden conviction that it didn't matter that they were arguing right now, because they weren't really arguing anyway... And she laughed in her mind at these words simultaneously not making any and making all the sense in the world.

Damon seemed to ponder something, if only for a split second, before he apparently decided to throw caution, common sense and everything else that was bothering him to the wind and say on an impulse something he wasn't planning on saying, but somehow the words just spontaneously formed themselves in his head and rolled off his tongue like a challenge, for him, for her, he wasn't sure. Elena wasn't either. But what she was sure of, was that breathing joined the list of her forgotten skills when Damon blurted out in a low, passionate, uneven voice:

"Marry me."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Alright, so fair warning, I haven't done it since I was thirteen," Jeremy said, submerging the oars on either side of the boat and beginning to row.

"Hey, be careful," Bonnie said in a mockingly warning voice. "After everything I've been through I don't want to die by drowning in a lake. That'd just be totally lame."

"Not as lame as forgetting three hundred years of your life," Enzo muttered with a timid, friendly smile that slightly startled both Bonnie and Jeremy every time. "I mean... death-"

"The technical term is: undeadness," Jeremy said with a perfectly straight face.

Bonnie shook her head, giving Jeremy an amused smile. "So... what was the last day that you remember like?" She asked conversationally.

"Unless you want to talk about trying to kill me first?" Jeremy offered, glancing at Bonnie who widened her eyes at him.

"I tried to kill you?" Enzo asked, blinking.

"Yeah, but don't feel bad about it. Everyone else who tried also failed." Jeremy shrugged.

Bonnie laughed. Enzo just stared at Jeremy with wide eyes, too shocked to draw any reassurance from Bonnie's reaction.

"He's joking, right?" He asked, struck by the thought, glancing at Bonnie with sincere hope of finding confirmation in her eyes.

"Kind of," Bonnie allowed, squinting.

Enzo shot a quick look at Jeremy who just slowly but firmly shook his head. But because Bonnie laughed again, Enzo wasn't sure what to really make of all of this.

"Do you have any siblings?" Bonnie asked, trying to restart a civilized conversation.

"I have three sisters," Enzo replied with a small smile, but then frowned. "They are all dead by now, aren't they."

"But there's a big chance you have lots of great-great-great-great-great nephews all over the world," Jeremy said, glancing around the lake, his eyes lingering on the house for a few seconds. "We could move in here," he said, looking back at Bonnie who gave him a surprised look. "I don't think Damon likes this place at all, so they wouldn't want to be coming down here with Elena very often. We could have it all for ourselves."

Shaking her head in amusement, Bonnie smiled. "That's a very thoughtful analysis of the situation."

"I'm just saying."

"What time is it?" Bonnie suddenly asked, grabbing Enzo's hand to check his watch. "Where is my phone?"

"Probably in your backpack," Jeremy said with a small smile. "It wouldn't work on the lake anyway."

Bonnie sighed. "We have to go back. I'm waiting for an important call from... someone about... something," she said a little cryptically. Jeremy arched an eyebrow at her, but she just shrugged, stifling a smile.

"Oh, you don't have to be so precise," Jeremy said, squinting and pushing on the oars a little harder to turn the boat around.

Bonnie laughed. "If you must know. I made up my own spell based on that chapter with swapping spells from Esther's grimoire." She straightened up and after drawing a breath added. "I'm going to try turning Damon into a vampire."

Enzo raised his eyebrows. All these conversations about magic were most disturbing, but also rather fascinating.

"What?" Jeremy widened his eyes at Bonnie. "But he can't be turned-"

"He can't be turned, but that's not going to be a regular transition. It's a swapping spell. That's why I need a vampire who wants to be a human again. And I asked someone to consider this... offer. The spell will simultaneously turn a vampire into a human and a human into a vampire."

"Sounds like a scientific breakthrough," Enzo observed and Jeremy shot him a grim look, because Bonnie seemed very happy about receiving a positive comment on her announcement. "Could you turn me into a human?"

Bonnie blinked, a little caught off guard by the question. "Well, I think we should restore your memories first. I don't think you can make a valid decision while you're missing three hundred years worth of memories," she said with a small smile.

"Wait," Jeremy interrupted her, shaking his head. "Bonnie. So whom do you want to turn into a human?"

Bonnie smiled. "Someone who used to be quite determined to take the cure."

xxxdelenaxxx

He had actually expected her to get even more upset or laugh, but instead, Elena just thrust her chin in a defiant manner, threw a laconic: _"OK. I will."_ at him and stormed back into the car, leaving Damon to just stare after her for a while, before he made his way back to the car without feeling the ground under his feet, hearing the engine when he turned it on or seeing the road in front of him for the next two hours while they continued driving to Georgia in complete silence.

By the time they were getting close to Atlanta he almost began wondering if she'd heard him correctly... or if he'd understood her answer correctly... or if he'd even asked the question out loud in the first place...

"You don't have any pictures of me in your phone," Elena said at last after a few minutes of fumbling with his phone, her voice way more casual than the situation warranted.

Damon shifted his eyes to her, trying to guess if she was joking, but Elena's expression was serious or unreadable at best and he couldn't quite decide what she was thinking. "I only have this phone since yesterday."

Her eyes on the screen, Elena shrugged, as if to signal that she didn't consider it a good enough explanation.

Turning his eyes back to the road, Damon watched her out of the corner of his eye for a few seconds. "I don't need any pictures," he said brusquely, noting that despite trying not to make it show, this clearly caught Elena's attention and she stiffened, waiting for him to elaborate. "I have you, all of you, memorized by heart," he said and Elena's eyelids fluttered, but then she almost dropped his phone when he added. "I have kissed every square inch of your body hundreds of times."

Elena's eyes darted to him. "Are you trying to intimidate me?"

Damon gave her an incredulous look. "I thought you wanted to know everything?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Thank you for telling me, but _that_ is something I already figured on my own."

Damon couldn't help a smirk that lit up his eyes for a second. "Really?"

Elena looked away from him, her cheeks flushed. "Stop it. We're not married yet," she said haughtily, biting back a chuckle.

Damon drew a breath and averted his eyes from her as well, shivers running up his spine at her bringing _that_ subject up and by doing so confirming that he hadn't just imagined their exchange from two hours ago.

"Having second thoughts?" Elena asked, arching an eyebrow, trying to decipher the expression on his face.

"Me?" Damon widened his eyes at her. "No. You?"

"No," Elena said resolutely, fidgeting slightly in her seat. "Turn right."

"Why?" Damon asked, quite sure it wasn't the right exit-

"There's a jewelry store 25 miles from here, right outside of Atlanta," she said in a perfectly composed voice and Damon's eyes moved to her and only then he noticed that she was using his phone to look at maps and driving directions.

"We have to get the wedding rings somewhere, right?" She said, almost snapped and Damon didn't know if what was happening right now was perfectly normal or utterly confusing or both.

Theoretically, he knew she couldn't be really upset, regardless of what the tone of her voice suggested, because if she was, she wouldn't be going through with... this, with... marrying him.

Marrying him. The words echoed in his head along with his heartbeat and he wondered if it just felt to him as if each of his movements was happening in slow motion or if it really was the case.

He almost asked Elena about it, but when he looked at her after parking the car in front of the jewelry store he noticed with inner exhilaration that her hands were shaking when she reached out to open the door and get out of the car.

Not daring to smile in an open manner, he got out of the car as well and followed her into the store in which they must've made the most memorable impression snapping at each other, snorting derisively, arguing and huffing while choosing an engagement ring and trying on wedding rings and finally wishing for the ones they chose to be prepared _immediately_.

"Well, I'm afraid-" The jeweler started with a strained, polite smile, but he didn't have a chance to finish formulating his explanation as to why such a prompt service wasn't possible.

Damon leaned toward Elena and whispered something in her ear, her hands curling up into fists, nails digging into her skin when his lips touched her ear, which was completely gratuitous, because she was quite certain that it would've been possible for him to whisper in her ear without kissing it.

Leaning a little over the counter, Elena caught the jeweler's gaze and feeling just a tiny bit awkward compelled him to prepare wedding rings for them - within half an hour. Sharp.

"Nice touch," Damon said with a smirk, looking her up and down.

Elena gave him a fleeting look. "Stop devouring me with your eyes," she said matter-of-factly, watching the jeweler disappear at the back of the store to adjust the sizes of their wedding rings.

"Oh, but that works both ways," Damon said, surprising her a little by suddenly beginning to play along, sneaking his arm around her waist and pulling her hard against his chest.

"I'm not-"

Elena started, but then his lips crashed onto hers and he took his time kissing her very slowly and thoroughly before gently releasing her and walking off to start casually examining all the glass cabinets in the store.

xxxdelenaxxx

"That is _so_ fun!" Caroline clapped her hands, glancing around the stage and the audience, quite amazed that she was able to compel all of the actors and all of the theater guests at the same time.

Klaus returned her smile with a gleeful smirk on his own, clasping his hands behind his back and watching her run around the stage and checking if every person in here was really going to say and do only what she'd tell them to.

"That's debatable," Alaric mumbled with a frown, not thrilled by Klaus' methods of easing Caroline and Stefan into the reality of being vampires.

At least Stefan seemed fairly skeptical about most of it, but in case of Caroline Alaric was rather glad that she'd have her memories back in a couple of days and then hopefully resume a more reasonable and less enthusiastic approach to going to restaurants and munching on waiters instead of food, zooming across multi-level highways and compelling crowds.

Alaric glanced at Stefan who seemed more interested in the theater interiors than vampire tricks and was standing near the edge of the stage, looking around with a wistful expression on his face.

And only then Alaric suddenly realized, that for all of Klaus' rather repulsive ideas, he'd somehow managed to achieve something surprisingly positive: erase the fear of taking human lives, the fear that both Caroline and Stefan had been overcome by almost immediately after they had turned. They'd both made their first kills very soon, driven by confusing, overpowering thirst. In a way, it had been that fear that overshadowed their beginnings as vampires, but now, at least for the time being, it was no longer true. Now both Caroline and Stefan didn't seem to associate being vampires with violence and death and Alaric wondered if that'd affect them in any way once they'd get their memories back.

Shifting his eyes from Stefan to Klaus, Alaric also couldn't help noticing that he seemed to be sincerely enjoying himself, as if the relative simplicity of the moment, the fact that he was being of help and that he was making Caroline smile and Stefan behave without a trace of his ripper-y tendencies was actually making him happy in a very... human way.

But perhaps there was nothing too surprising about it, Alaric thought, his eyes lingering on one of the plush seats that reminded him of a couch, the first piece of furniture that Isobel had bought for their apartment. When he'd become a vampire, the memory of what she'd told him and then compelled him to forget before disappearing from his life forever had returned to him and it kept coming back to him ever since.

Perhaps there truly weren't any vampires, any people in the world that were truly evil.

"But if I sing and they'll clap... I won't actually know if they're clapping because they like my singing or because they're compelled to clap," Caroline observed a little dejectedly, pursing her lips.

Klaus didn't really have an answer to that.

"You can compel them to react the way they really feel," Stefan offered, although he immediately thought that perhaps he should wait with suggesting that, because while this girl was very beautiful and stunningly vivacious, there was no way to tell if she could sing until she'd actually start singing.

"That's a great idea!" Caroline exclaimed happily.

Alaric leaned against the wall and looked pensively around the stage.

Perhaps everyone could be saved, if only there was someone out there willing to help with the saving.

xxxdelenaxxx

The wedding ceremony was brief... although not as brief as it could've been if they weren't stuttering and stammering while saying the vows, unwittingly beginning to speak at the same time, if Elena didn't keep dropping her wedding bouquet, Damon didn't keep picking it up, their hands didn't keep colliding and their kiss didn't last for longer than it was appropriate.

They walked out of the church holding hands and without discussing it, they started wandering around Atlanta, looking at everything with great interest as if they were avid tourists visiting the city for the first time. They were even exchanging some casual comments and observations and it was only when their eyes would meet from time to time that some kind of a hidden understanding would pass between them, their fingers intertwining so hard they couldn't tell which fingers belonged to whom. But then they'd quickly look away again and continue acting as if they were on some kind of an ordinary excursion.

They came back for the camaro a couple of hours later and drove to the hotel where upon entering the room, Elena, without a word, headed straight for the shower.

When she got out, she put on her pajamas and with a generic "good-night" tucked herself into bed without commenting either way on the fact that there was only one bed in the room.

Or on the fact that it was technically their wedding night.

Not really knowing what to make of this, Damon went to take his shower and half-hoped for Elena to sneak into the bathroom a moment later... but she didn't.

When he walked out of the bathroom, the room was almost completely dark, except for several faint rays of light seeping into it through the window, illuminating Elena's form on the bed. She was lying on her side with one hand under her cheek, her hair falling over her back and shoulder, her breathing even.

Having untied the towel from around his waist, Damon put it away before sliding under the bed cover next to Elena who shifted in her sleep and muttered something incoherent.

Turning onto his side, without really thinking about it, Damon reached out and brushing a lock of hair off her neck, he pushed the strap of her top off her shoulder, marveling inwardly at how naturally composed into the flowery pattern on the back of her top the strands of her hair looked.

He propped himself on his elbow and after a few moments of just looking at her, he leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to her shoulder. Very carefully, he stroked her hair, smiling faintly and then turned onto his back and watched the lights of the cars passing outside mingle with the shadows on the ceiling.

But not even a minute passed, before he heard a muffled noise and he froze at the immediate thought that Elena was crying.

He held his breath, straining his ears as much as possible and becoming, with every passing second more and more certain that she was sobbing. No doubt it suddenly dawned on her what had happened, what she had done, that she'd actually married him-

And Damon didn't even dare to shift his eyes to her when he heard and felt Elena toss herself onto her back next to him, her hair falling onto his arm.

Then the same muffled noise resounded again and he blinked at the startling realization that she wasn't crying.

She was giggling.

Damon blinked and with a confused frown, he abruptly turned his head, his eyes darting to Elena's face in alarm. Because laughter wasn't necessarily much better than weeping... although of course he didn't really think that the fact that they were lying together in bed was as bad as to warrant her going so mad that she'd start laughing hysterically from despair.

"Elena?"

She chuckled under her breath again, but then she turned her head and looked at him, her eyes sparkling rather joyously in the semi-darkness of the room, her expression clearly amused, although Damon couldn't imagine what could possibly put her in such a jolly mood.

"I just thought..." she chuckled again, stirring under the sheets and pushing the cover off her a little, so it was only covering the lower parts of her legs that weren't covered by her short shorts. "That it's like... that it's as if we were in an arranged marriage and-" she giggled and brushed her hair off her face. "And we know what's going to happen, but we kind of behave like it doesn't have to happen, because we don't know each other very well and it's all a little awkward and strange."

Damon's frown deepened, his eyes wandering all over Elena's face in increasing bafflement. For a moment he also entertained the thought of checking if she didn't have a fever. "I'm not sure I'm enjoying the metaphor."

Elena rolled her eyes and turned onto her side, tucking a pillow under her cheek. "You know what I mean."

Damon mirrored her movements and tucked his pillow under his head as well, rolling onto his side to face her. "I'm afraid I don't. We most certainly don't _have to_ do anything," he said, putting almost a hurt look onto his face.

But somehow his attitude didn't seem to ruin Elena's mood in the slightest. "What's happened to your sense of humor?" She asked with a smile flickering across her face, her eyes scanning his face with intensity that seemed to him both new and endlessly familiar.

"I'm sorry if I don't find much humor in you feeling like you've been forced into marrying me."

Elena sighed, amusement not leaving her face or voice even for a second. She poked Damon lightly on the shin with her foot. "Don't start again. I just realized how funny it really is that we're acting so timid around each other, that's all."

She propped herself on her elbow and caught him completely off guard by pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. Damon just continued staring at her with a frown on his face and Elena bit her lip, stifling a laugh.

"Kisses on the cheek don't count, do they? Duly noted. See if I can make any improvements," she said, squinting and then anchoring her hand on his shoulder, she pressed her lips to his for a few enchanting seconds before drawing back and resuming her position of lying on the back and looking up.

"I really liked the Swan House," she said after a pause, apparently thinking back to their tour around the city, although it took Damon a good minute to realize that, his mind reeling from the mere fact that her leg was casually draped over his under the cover.

Not being quite sure what she was doing or what was happening, Damon blinked repeatedly and then slowly returned to lying on his back as well, doing his best to breathe as quietly as possible, despite his lips feeling as if Elena's mouth was still touching his.

They were both silent for a few moments and Damon didn't even remember how or when he'd put his hand in such a way that it was lying on the bed along his side and he noticed it only when he felt Elena's hand touch his.

He instinctively looked down, watching her hand in wonder for a few seconds, but wonder morphed into complete amazement when he was struck by the realization of what moment she was recreating by grasping his hand, turning it over and carefully grazing his fingers with hers.

Slowly, Damon moved his eyes from their joined hands to Elena's face. She was still lying on her back, but her head was turned, her eyes waiting to lock with his the moment he finally looked at her.

His first thought was to kiss her, but somehow he managed to do the opposite and disentangling his hand from hers, he sat up and turned away from her.

And he didn't need to look at her to imagine the expression on her face.

"What are you doing?" Elena whispered with the faintest trace of trepidation in her voice.

Making the greatest effort to regain his composure and keep his voice as indifferent as possible, Damon replied calmly. "I'm going to storm out of the room and dash across the hallway. Not very far, but still."

Elena blinked, but then she burst out laughing. She sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder.

Slowly, he lifted his hand and placed it over hers, clasped together on his chest. Tilting his head to the side he looked at her and was a little worried when she didn't retain the eye-contact with him, but drew back instead.

He turned around to face her – but then all of his worries were swept away.

"I don't feel like I woke up to a nightmare," Elena said quietly, drawing a shaky breath and bracing herself in a determined, ardent way that must've shown in her eyes, because Damon looked at her with a sudden glimpse of cautious, intense alertness in his gaze. "Do you want to know what I feel?" Her lips trembled and she laughed inwardly, frightened, thrilled by the oddest impression that when he was looking at her lips it almost felt as if he was kissing her.

"Imagine that there was a place," Elena continued after a pause, not knowing what she was going to say and if it'd even make any sense. She just tried to think of the most accurate way of translating her feelings into words, even if it was going to sound rather strange. "A mysterious, beautiful place that would take your breath away every time you'd think of it. And sometimes... sometimes at all times you'd wish for nothing more than to travel to that place, make it your home, but... It was a dangerous place. And so, so far away." Elena's voice faltered and Damon's breath caught in his throat at the sight of tears welling up in her eyes. "And you weren't brave enough to go there, strong enough to undertake that journey, ready to leave everything behind. So you... so you'd try very hard not to think of that place and sometimes it'd even seem that it'd be alright, that you didn't really need to go there...You could live without really living. Smile without feeling really happy. You could do it all. But then the pain would come. It'd come every time, when you'd think you were going to be OK... because being OK actually hurt most, because you could never be truly OK, not until you'd get to that place that you'd never, could never go to-"

"Elena-" Gently, Damon tried to cut in, because her voice was growing feverish.

But she shook her head, wordlessly asking him not to interrupt her and continued with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"And one day, you'd wake up and... and suddenly you're there. You'd wake up and you'd be in that place. _That_ is how I feel. I don't feel like I woke up in a nightmare. I feel like I woke up in a dream."

Damon stared at her, not a muscle in his face moving, but when she started wiping the tears off her face with the backs of her fingers, he caught her hands and squeezing them hard and caressing in his he hastily pulled her toward him.

"Elena-"

"I don't know when I fell in love with you," she whispered on an impulse and he seemed to stop breathing altogether. "And I might've never said it, but... I remember so many moments when you'd just... sneak up on me. When for a second, I just wouldn't know what was happening. All those moments torn out of time. Like our dance at the pageant. Like when you were poisoned with werewolf venom. Like that night when you came to my room after we'd come back from Tennessee or that evening after the homecoming ball or in Denver. I wasn't planning on kissing you during that trip. I hope you've never thought that. If anything I was planning on not kissing you," she chuckled brokenly. "It just happened. It'd always happen whenever we were close. I'd feel so overwhelmed, overcome by something indescribable." Elena fell silent for a few moments and then continued in a low, wistful voice. "And I was frightened. I didn't want to feel something that could... that could control me in such a way, that could... destroy me if I'd ever lose it. It was just more than I could bear to feel and I've never even dared, didn't know how to put that feeling into words, because it was so unlike anything I've ever felt before. I didn't know if it was right or wrong. All I knew was that it was the most real thing that I've ever felt in my entire life. And it scared me. But something has changed, I can feel it, and now I'm not scared anymore. And it feels right. It's right," Elena smiled again, recalling the words and wondering if she was recalling even more words than she could recognize, because her every sentence seemed to astound Damon even more, any shadows of uncertainty lifting off his gaze. "I feel happy and free and more alive than ever."

She trailed off and laughed soundlessly against his lips when he kissed her, hot tears cooling under her closed eyelids and for a moment she felt like she knew it all, without being told, all the memories, all their moments together so clear, ingrained in the imperious yet consummately gentle way his lips molded against hers, in which his arms wrapped around her, pulling her close, his hands tender on her face, lost in her hair, impatient on her skin.

Placing her open palms on his chest she reluctantly broke the kiss and looked at him through half-lidded eyes, her breath ghosting across his skin.

"Alright," she said, surreptitiously trying to catch her breath and to Damon's bafflement scooting deeper onto the bed and positioning herself with her back against the headboard. "Now you can tell me about everything."

Damon blinked. "Now?" He echoed blankly and it took all of Elena's willpower not to laugh. "But... it's... it's our wedding night," he said a little helplessly.

Elena shrugged. "Well, it is, but..." She drew a breath, fumbling with the lacy hem of her top, "You could've told me everything during the car ride. But since you didn't, we need to talk about it right now."

She looked at him unblinkingly, for some reason feeling that the moment she blinked, she'd start laughing, because the expression on Damon's face was utterly amusing.

With a stifled, resigned groan he sat on the bed next to her. "When you woke up after the accident-"

"Unless you promise to tell me everything tomorrow," Elena cut him off before he managed to finish the very first sentence.

Damon's lips twitched into a lopsided smile and he immediately pulled Elena back into his arms.

"I promise," he whispered, showering her face with kisses.

She laughed under her breath, but then cupped his face in her hands and looked at him thoughtfully, the words echoing in her head in a way that made her feel like there was something more to them, something terrifying yet beautiful that she couldn't name.

Damon placed his hands on either side of Elena's face and repeated the words that he knew she couldn't remember, not in their most grievous context, but there was something in her expression that told him that she understood them exactly, could feel their bittersweet weight, their timelessness and the all-encompassing truth enclosed in them.

Sliding her arms around him, Elena nestled her face in Damon's neck while he buried his in her hair, cradling her to him.

"I promise you."


End file.
